NFA OKs private rice imports

National Food Authority (NFA) Administrator Jason Y. Aquino has moved to allow the entry of private-sector rice imports until June 30, extending the previous deadline of Feb. 28 and ending a months-long squabble within the NFA Council.

Through NFA Memorandum No. 05-39, Aquino said the deadline was extended “in accordance with NFA Council Resolution No. 84-2017-C dated March 28.”

Last May 17, Cabinet Secretary Leoncio B. Evasco said the NFA had been ordered to allow a total of 54,000 tons of additional milled rice shipments until June as the government moves to shore up its buffer stock.

The order, given out by the NFA Council, the food agency’s highest decision-making body, means an extension of the deadline for incoming shipments imported through the minimum access volume (MAV), which was originally set for Feb. 28, 2017.

The MAV is a mechanism of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that suspended the implementation of tariffs on rice for countries where trade of the staple grain is socially sensitive while committing the concerned country to ensure a minimum volume of guaranteed importation.

The question of whether or not the deadline for MAV shipments should be moved forward sparked in-fighting at the NFA Council, with the NFA administrator defying the council majority.

Yesterday, Evasco said the council ordered the NFA management to sign the remaining import permits covering 54,000 tons from the 2016 MAV allocations, which have already been landed and stored in domestic ports.

He said the council also ordered the NFA management to “publish the extension until June for the remaining 20,000 metric tons to augment our industry stocks.”

“Actually, the NFA should stop its commercial functions and just focus on being a regulatory agency,” Evasco said.

“The NFA is (prone to corruption) because of the conflict of interest for having both proprietary and regulatory functions,” he added. “The legislature should act fast to amend the NFA charter to finally end the monopoly on rice importation of NFA and perhaps streamline its functions.”

Even then, Evasco earlier said the NFA would continue to import rice, but would engage private-sector entities instead of state-run grain suppliers abroad.