PH expected to import rice anew to beef up stock

The Philippines is expected to import more rice in 2014 than previously estimated as the government moves to beef up its buffer stocks.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which keeps tabs on the global market, has raised its projection on Philippines’ importation by 200,000 tons to 1.4 million tons.

The United States is among the world’s top exporters of milled rice while the Philippines is one of the world’s top rice importers.

The USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) said in its latest outlook report that the revised forecast was based on data from the US Agricultural Office in Manila, which indicates that Malacañang wants to increase its stockpile.

The USDA-ERS, in a report issued in December, had also revised upward its projection for the Philippines’ importation by 100,000 tons.

Back then, the revision was based on early estimates of losses caused by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” and government announcements regarding additional imports.

Shipments of a 500,000-metric-ton purchase from Vietnam that was arranged following a bidding last December have started to arrive.

The latest batch was a cargo of some 500,000 bags that landed last week at the Subic Bay Freeport in Zambales.

Officials at the National Food Authority said full delivery of the 10-million-bag total—at 50 kilos each—is expected not later than February, to ensure that shipments would not distort prices when harvest comes in March and April.

The NFA had explained that the purchase was needed because of the release of supplies for relief efforts following destructive typhoons as well as man-made crises like the siege in Zamboanga, which led to the depletion of its buffer stocks.

In the days leading to the auction last month, officials said the stockpile had dwindled to just about 10 days’ worth of consumption.

The NFA is mandated to keep at least 15 days’ worth.

Further, the increase in the Philippines’ forecast importation partly caused a similar revision in the projection for global trade volume this year.

Total volume is now pegged at 40.2 million tons, which is 400,000 tons higher than the previous month’s forecast and 1.9 million tons more than the 2013 volume.

On Friday, the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics reported that domestic palay output reached a new record of 18.44 million metric tons, up 2.3 percent from the 2012 level.