NO ban on rice imports is forthcoming because the country needs buffer stocks ahead of the dry months, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. told reporters Tuesday.
“There is a big El Niño coming [in] November and December. We have to have buffer [rice] stocks for December, and January, February, March, April next year,” the agri chief said at a public market monitoring activity with the media in Las Piñas.
As of Monday, the country has imported 3.3 million metric tons (MT) of rice, surpassing the 3-million MT mark, Tiu Laurel said, adding that he monitors import volumes weekly.
The pronouncement is a turnaround from last year’s stance, when the Agriculture department stopped importing rice from September to December to support farmgate prices during harvest season.
To avoid a price drop in local rice the government will buy 500,000 tons of palay from farmers this wet season, said Tiu Laurel, who also chairs the National Food Authority ( A) Council.
The A — which is tasked to ensure food security, maintain a rice buffer stock, and stabilize the supply and price of rice in the country — has been directed to step up palay procurement to cushion farmers from lower prices and sustain planting intentions amid the threat of El Niño.
Tiu Laurel said the A has been ordered to decongest its warehouses by September to make room for increased palay buying, and to ramp up the disposal of aging but good-quality stocks under the Benteng Bigas Meron (BBM) Na program.
The A is targeting a minimum buying price of P21 per kilo for wet palay and P25 to P27/kg for dry palay, Tiu Laurel said.
This year’s palay procurement has been allocated P20 billion — more than double than last year’s P9-billion budget.
Palay production in the second quarter grew 5.7 percent to 4.62 million MT, up from 4.37 million MT a year earlier, though it slipped 0.6 percent to 9.02 million MT in Q1 from 9.07 million MT last year.
Meanwhile, there is likewise no need for the P50/kg price cap on 5-percent broken rice, Tiu Laurel said, citing stable market prices.
He reiterated the government’s call for rice importers to temporarily stop the shipment of 5-percent broken rice to support the local rice industry.
