by Othel V. Campos
THE government will allow private importers to bring in 440,000 metric tons of rice this year from 220,000 last year to head off a looming rice shortage, National Food Authority Administrator Lito Banayo said Friday.
“We will give the private sector a bigger share than last year. That was the directive of [Agriculture] Secretary [Proceso] Alcala,†Banayo said.
He would not say how much rice would be imported this year, but confirmed that at least 1.08 million metric tons will be brought in before the lean months for buffer stocking.
“The 1 million metric tons will form part of the security stocks that the government procures to tide the country over during the lean months of July, August until September, the typhoon months of the year,†he said.
The food agency plans its first rice tender this year in the first quarter, and to increase its buffer stock to 40 days from 30 to be prepared for calamities. The country’s average rice consumption is 36,000 metric tons a day.
The Philippines has so far extended to 2013 a rice supply agreement with Vietnam.
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