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MEMBERS
of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)
and Japan, South Korea and China (Asean+3) are planning
to make permanent a rice-reserve program that seeks to
stabilize the price of rice in times of calamity and
other emergency situations in the region by next year.
National
Food Authority (NFA) Administrator Jessup Navarro said
senior officials and ministers of agriculture and
forestry are keen on making permanent the East Asia
Emergency Rice Reserve (EAERR) program to ensure food
security in the region.
The
ministers of agriculture and fishery of Asean+3
countries have recommended the extension of the EAERR
scheme until February 28, 2009. Navarro said plans are
already under way to make the facility permanent by next
year.
“There
are recommendations to make it permanent because of the
significant progress it made in terms of ensuring food
security,” the NFA official told the BusinessMirror in
an interview.
Under
the EAERR, Navarro estimated that a total of 200,000
metric tons (MT) of rice have been pledged by Asean+3
countries as buffer stock.
“The
biggest volume was pledged by Japan. I think it’s more
than 100,000 MT,” he said.
The
EAERR was conceived to stabilize the price of rice in
the region, especially during calamities and
emergencies, such as a sudden tightness in supply due to
floods or droughts.
Asean
approved the EAERR in a meeting in October 2002. It was
pilot-tested from 2004 up to 2007, and its
implementation was extended twice.
Earlier,
the
Philippines had
used the EAERR to prop up its rice supplies. Navarro
disclosed that the government is now in talks with
Thailand to draw some 15,000 MT of rice which should
arrive in the Philippines before the lean months.
Based on
a previous plan, countries participating in the program
wanted to hike the region’s staple reserve from 87,000
MT to 1.75 million metric tons (MMT) to stabilize the
price and supply of the commodity.
Normally, member-countries pledge for stocks during the
annual meeting of the Asean Ministry of Agriculture and
Forestry. Those with excess production are urged to
pledge a certain percentage of their production.
The
earmarked reserves—operated under forwarding contracts
by pledging countries—would serve as a regional rice
pool to cope with price fluctuations resulting from
unusual market conditions.
If the
volume is unused for emergencies, the volume will be
used for the poverty-alleviation programs of
member-countries.
The
volume of 87,000 MT of rice reserve was set up in 1979
when Asean had only five members. The reserve was used
only once in 1980 by the Philippines.
Asean
members are in agreement that the emergency rice
stockpile is essential in the light of the current
tightness in the supply of food staples such as rice and
corn in the international market.
Meanwhile, Navarro disclosed that Vietnam has assured
the Philippines it will prioritize Manila for its rice
exports.
The NFA
official said the
Philippines
usually imports 1.4 MMT to 1.5 MMT of rice from
Vietnam.
The
tightness in the supply of rice in the world market and
its threat to the food security of major rice-importing
countries prompted President Arroyo to ask Vietnam to
prioritize the Philippines for its rice stocks. |
