Rice importers have all the fun

Of all the queer things that have happened to the Philippines since it was renamed for the King of Spain by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi in 1565, the queerest of them all has been the near-disappearance of homegrown rice from the local market.

Last week shame and scandal continued to rock the nation because indigenous rice was not only shamefully disappearing in a country that used to be Southeast Asia’s largest rice exporter; it was also scandalously being peddled by private importers at prices ridiculed by our neighbors, namely, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.

Together, the five have banded together to form a rice cartel to influence prices against rice importers that include the Philippines. Traders have accused the Philippines of pushing prices to record highs because of its huge imports through privately owned groups.

The prime minister of Thailand, Samak Sundaravej, has denied that the proposed five-nation club would be like the Organization of Petroleum- Exporting Countries (Opec).

“We don’t aspire to be like Opec, but we hope to be just a group of five to help each other in trading rice on the world market,” he said.

Nonetheless, Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama was all for it. “I think it’s time to do it, probably within the term of this administration.”

Later, Thailand said it would not also join a Philippine import tender of 675,000 metric tons (MT) scheduled for May 5 because it does not endorse private traders.

The Philippines wants to import the commodity through either government or private agencies endorsed by their respective governments.

Thai laws prohibit the government from endorsing any private trade action.

The National Food Authority (NFA), a government agency of the Philippines, has agreed that the private sector be allowed to import as much as 163,000 MT of long-grain white rice.

The government had already signed contracts to secure some 1.56 MT of rice from Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan and the United States, or more than 70 percent of its target import volume for 2008. But with the Thai decision not to endorse such a bidding, it is likely that the Philippines will have to look elsewhere for overseas rice.

Earlier, the NFA anticipated that 98,000 tons would come from Thailand, 25,000 from India, 25,000 from China and 15,000 from Australia.

At present, the Mekong Delta—comprising the five main producers—harvests rice three or four times a year, a record the Philippines will never ever hope to duplicate despite the presence of the International Rice Research Institute in the country.

Thailand exports about 10 million tons annually, twice as much as Vietnam, the second-largest rice exporter, and three times what the United States exports. 

E-mail: raulbvalino@yahoo.com.ph.

CAN the Philippines achieve self-sufficiency in rice by 2010?

Some experts say that would be tough given that the country is archipelagic and doesn’t have extensive river systems to support massive irrigation networks necessary to expand rice production on a grand scale. Countries on the Mekong River like Vietnam and Thailand have this advantage. That explains why they are now the world’s leading rice exporters.

Of all the queer things that have happened to the Philippines since it was renamed for the King of Spain by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi in 1565, the queerest of them all has been the near-disappearance of homegrown rice from the local market.

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