THE Philippine government had decided to buy an additional 250,000 metric tons (MT) of milled rice via a government-to-government (G-to-G) deal to ensure the availability of the staple, despite the onslaught of the El Niño weather phenomenon.
The National Food Authority (NFA) said the NFA Council approved the purchase of 250,000 MT of rice from foreign sources to prepare for the lean months beginning July and to stabilize rice prices.
“The importation of another 250,000 MT [of rice] is forthcoming as standby, in case there will be significant effects on production brought by El Niño subject to further evaluation and recommendation from the Food Security Committee to the NFA Council,” the NFA said.
Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization Francis Pangilinan said the committee may come out with a decision on whether to import more rice in July.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) earlier said the country’s rice output could go down by 4.21 percent to 3.9 million metric tons (MMT) in April to June this year, from 4.07 MMT recorded in the second quarter of 2014 due to the dry spell caused by El Niño.
“We consume more than what we produce and if we do not import, the deficit rice prices will go up,” Pangilinan said.
Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia, which currently have existing rice agreements with the Philippine government, will be invited to participate in the G-to-G procurement.
Early this year the Philippines imported 500,000 MT of rice through a G-to-G deal with Thailand and Vietnam. This is in addition to the 163,000 MT of rice which Manila has allowed to be purchased under the minimum access volume scheme of the World Trade Organization.
Aside from importing rice, NFA Administrator Renan Dalisay said the state-run food agency hopes to beef up its buffer stock by purchasing palay from local farmers.
An NFA source, however, noted that the massive procurement of locally grown palay may be “a losing proposition” for the food agency, saying that farmers might be unwilling to let go of their seed stocks, due to El Niño.
The dry spell caused by El Niño has already caused rice output in the first quarter of the year to go down by 6.09 percent to 4.75 million MT (MMT), from 5.06 MMT in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to the PSA’s seasonally adjusted palay-production data.
The PSA attributed the decline to the contraction in harvest area due to the damages caused by Typhoon Amang (international code name Mekkhala) in January and the dry spell which affected palay in the reproductive and maturing stages.