Philippines to maintain 30-day rice stockpile

MANILA, Philippines - The National Food Authority (NFA) plans to start this month its tender for the importation of 660,000 metric tons of rice, administrator Angelito Banayo said.

The NFA official said the agency must hold the rice tender this month so that the rice can arrive by June or July when the lean months for rice production begin.

Testifying before the Senate committee on agriculture and food, Banayo said that the a decision was reached to import an initial 860,000 metric tons, of which 660,000 MT would be imported by the private sector and the NFA 200,000 MT.

However, he said the Inter-Agency Committee (IAC) had recommended the importation of up to 1.3 million MT.

The NFA, Banayo said, is just awaiting the approval by the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) of the Department of Finance of the use of the Tax Expenditure Fund (TEF) for the private sector importation.

The TEF, in effect, would subsidize the tariff duties for the rice importation to be made by the private sector.

The private sector, this time around, however would bid for the service fee to be paid to the NFA which would still be the importer on record.

In the past, the NFA charged a service fee of only P25 per bag of rice.

The NFA also plans to import on its own another 200,000 MT.

However, Banayo did not rule out the possibility of additional imports in the face of increasing global grains prices and food security concerns.