THE Philippines’ food import bill for 2008 may go up to close to 40 percent due to more expensive rice, wheat and dairy products, according to the latest Food Outlook released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In its latest report, FAO noted that most low-income food deficit countries (LIFDCs), under which the Philippines is classified, will face substantially higher import bills compared with last year. The import bill of the Philippines may rise by about 38 percent.

“Surging prices of wheat, rice and vegetable oils will take their tolls on import costs,” said FAO.

Among all LIFDCs, FAO said Haiti will see the highest increase in its food-import bill this year at 83 percent. The Philippines is considered a net food-importing country.

The unit noted that the bulk of the anticipated growth in the world food import bill would rest on higher expenditures on rice, wheat and vegetable oils, which are all forecast to rise to unprecedented levels from 2007—77 percent in the case of rice, in spite of a forecast sharp contraction in global rice deliveries in 2008, and around 60 percent for wheat and vegetable oils.

“Soaring international quotations are mostly responsible but also freight costs, which have nearly doubled for many routes,” said FAO.

For rice, the UN unit said global market conditions could improve as new crops are being harvested in both the South and North Hemisphere, which could help reverse the upward trend in prices from their recent peaks.

FAO, however, warned that world rice quotations are likely to remain “extremely strong” at least until October and November, when the bulk of the 2008 paddy crops will start being marketed.

“Until then, availabilities in those exporting countries that have not restrained access will be particularly stretched, especially as a number of large importing nations, including the Islamic Republic of Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria and Senegal, are expected to return on the world market to buy,” said FAO.

It said that the global rice market will react “strongly” to any shock, as illustrated by the disastrous impact of the Cyclone Nargis on Myanmar, which reignited prices in the first weeks in May.

“Over the longer term, however, world [and domestic] prices are unlikely to fall back to the pre-2007 levels, because of rising costs and the need for several countries to rebuild stocks,” said FAO.

The UN has expressed fears that more expensive food could worsen the food deprivation being suffered by 854 million people.

“Food is no longer the cheap commodity that it once was. Rising food prices are bound to worsen the already unacceptable level of food deprivation suffered by 854 million people,” said FAO Assistant Director General Hafez Ghanem.

“We are facing the risk that the number of hungry will increase by many more millions of people.”

THE Philippines’ food import bill for 2008 may go up to close to 40 percent due to more expensive rice, wheat and dairy products, according to the latest Food Outlook released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

DESPITE exhibiting some of the best practices in the Philippines, many of the best cities in the country still cannot be considered globally competitive, according to the International Finance Corp. (IFC).

THE local farm sector’s credit requirement was estimated at P200 billion in 2007, but banks were only able to finance P48 billion, or 24 percent, of this requirement, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has allocated P500 million for its Organikong Pagsasaka program, a program that seeks to encourage farmers to use organic fertilizers.

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) will organize a new office to take charge of making the country’s dry lands productive, a Philippine participant in the ongoing training course on Dryland Farming Techniques for Developing Countries in Baoding, Hebei province, in China, reported.

THE government, through the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI), will spend some P60 million to conduct a National Nutrition Survey (NNS), according to the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB).

THE vice chairman of the House Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development believes that the recent enactment into law of the Magna Carta for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) would create thousands of job opportunities and new businesses in the country.