The government on Monday began auctioning off 150,000 metric tons of its emergency rice stockpile to distributors nationwide in an unprecedented move to lower the price of rice, which has been on the rise since last summer.
Rice from the stockpile is expected to hit shelves from around the end of the month to the beginning of April.
Of the 210,000 tons of rice it plans to sell to distributors, 60,000 tons are scheduled to be released in a second round at a later date.
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