Philippines lowers rice import target

The Philippine government will be buying less than one million metric tons of rice for 2011, with initial purchases to be made within the first quarter, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said on Wednesday.

“What is recommended is about 1.3 million metric tons. But we’re confident we will not fill that volume,” Alcala told reporters.

Field reports indicate that “we might have robust harvest after all,” Alcala said.

The government maintains that the rice output target of 17.4 million MT target for 2011 is possible since the La Nina phenomenon will not reduce production and that measures had been put in place since last year to expand the area planted to rice. Last year, rice production contracted by 3.04 percent to 15.77 million MT due to El Nino.

While the government was urging the private sector to bring in the grains import need with assistance from the National Food Authority, it is not discounting the possibility of getting into government-to-government deal.

“We’re are also assessing the situation. We have a memorandum of agreement with Vietnam but we are beholden on that MOA. We may or may not source rice from Vietnam. We still have that option,” said Alcala.

He the initial volume will be decided within the next two weeks.

The government has already allocated 163,000 MT rice for importation by the private sector under the country specific quota, a commitment to the World Trade Organization.

The concession allows that Philippine government to curb rice importation to protect local farmers, but it has to import from four countries only, specifically Thailand, India, Australia and China.

The volume forms part of the recommended rice importation for the year. The government will also recommend to add to the total volume the arrival of some 56,000 MT rice from Vietnam which was held for safekeeping in Vietnam for lack of government storage facility.

All government warehouses remain full to the brim with as much as 1.7 million MT rice in its possession.

Total rice inventory as of the January 31 was about 3.39 million metric tons. The bulk remains with the government while as much as 1.13 million MT are with the households. The commercial sector has in its possession about 563 million MT.

(Source: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideNation.htm?f=2011/february/10/nation3.isx&d=2011/february/10)