Thursday,07/05/2009 - 16:01

Rice importation this year may reach 2 million tons

"[The country might import] up to 2 million [MT], yes," Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap told reporters at the sidelines of talks with an agribusiness mission from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Makati City. Last January, the government had already bought 1.5 million MT of rice from Vietnam at an average price of $480/MT-$490/MT. It has also allowed private traders to import as much as 200,000 MT of rice to help secure a steady supply in the country. The minimum volume is 5,000 MT per importer, with a service fee of P2 per kilogram, the National Food Authority said in its print advertisement late last week. "That 200,000 [MT] is a subset of authorization that is at least 500,000 metric tons. So we are going to see to what extent the private sector has an appetite [to import], Mr. Yap said. "Those are standby authorities but that does not mean we will exercise it," he stressed. The Philippines, the world’s largest importer of rice, bought a record-high volume of 2.3 million MT last year. That record buy drove benchmark world rice prices to $1,080/MT in April last year from $350/MT-$400MT in December 2007. Prices have since fallen to $550/MT-$700/MT this month. "We can do government-to-government [purchases] because I already have existing authority for government-to-government [negotiations]," Mr. Yap said. The country is expected to import rice until 2013, when the government expects to achieve its rice self-sufficiency target. "Agriculture Secretary Yap is forewarning the public of possible big random events from climate change. For example, heavy rains damaged rice fields days before the harvest," Rolando T. Dy, executive director of the University of Asia and the Pacific’s Center for Food and Agribusiness, said yesterday via mobile "text" message. "The climate shift makes the 2009 a likely ‘non-normal’ year." However, he said rice prices in the world market will unlikely go up amid the government’s announcement of more imports. "Last year’s rice bill was inordinately high. Some analysts felt there was excess imports to ensure food security," he said. "The world rice market remains calm," he noted. — Neil Jerome C. Morales