PH seen importing 1.8M tons of rice in 2015
MANILA, Philippines–The Philippines is expected to import 1.8 million tons of milled rice in 2015, the same estimated volume of shipments in 2014.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the forecast is based on expectations that domestic yearly production will grow little, if at all.
Such a scenario would again prompt the Philippines to depend on large volumes of imports in order to meet consumer demand and maintain stockpiles, the United Nations agency said in its latest monitoring report.
“Strong local quotations have also tended to limit domestic procurement operations to a minimum,” the FAO observed.
The FAO added that while the National Food Authority’s (NFA) procurement of palay had been traditionally just a small part of overall domestic output, the volume for January to September 2014 fell significantly to 8,000 tons from 286,000 tons in the same period of 2013.
“Indeed, and although still requiring approval, proposals have already been put forward for the NFA to use a standing permit to import supplies in case of emergencies to acquire 600,000 tons in 2015,” the agency said.
In 2014, the FAO noted that a surge in demand for milled rice in countries in the Far East—particularly the Philippines—along with bumper crops pushed global rice export volumes at “highest figures ever.”
Based on preliminary trade figures, deliveries to Asian countries were expected to have grown by 2 million tons to reach a total of 18.9 million tons.
Globally, trade in rice is expected to reach 40.2 million tons in 2014 and grow further to 40.5 million tons in the 2015 calendar year, the FAO said.
“At a country level, the increase would mostly mirror a resurgence of demand from the Philippines, in the aftermath of damages incurred as a result of Supertyphoon ‘Yolanda’ (international name: Haiyan) and depleted inventories,” the FAO added.
