NFA rice importations done through consultations, says Sarmiento

All rice importations of the National Food Authority (NFA) in 2002 passed a thorough and exhaustive inter-agency consultations, with the Department of Agriculture as the lead agency, Presidential Adviser on Agricultural Modernization Angelito M. Sarmiento disclosed over the weekend.

Sarmiento, also concurrent NFA Council chairman, said some 1.1 million tons of rice were imported by the NFA through the Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC) after a series of consultations among different government agencies involved, particularly the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics.

However, Sarmiento emphasized that there has been no additional rice importations since he assumed the chairmanship of the NFA Council. For several years, the country has been importing rice with the biggest importation volume reaching more than two million metric tons in 1998.

"The volume of rice importation was to assure the availability of supply, especially during the lean (no harvest) months of August and September," he said. The timing of import arrivals is critical so as not to depress local palay prices and disadvantage the local farmers during harvest time, he added.

The importation through the PITC was previously agreed upon before Sarmiento assumed the NFA position. "The coursing of rice importation through the PITC was designed to free the NFA from importing rice. Instead the PITC shall look for rice suppliers who are willing to countertrade with the Philippines," Sarmiento commented. He also stressed that the NFA is only the implementing arm of the inter-agency body for its import decision.

The country needs approximately 15.1 million metric tons of palay to meet the population’s daily rice consumption of 26, 800 metric tons. The country’s recorded bumper crop for 2002 was 13.1 million metric tons, still short by two million metric tons of palay equivalent to 1.3 million metric tons of rice.

NFA is now implementing the program of President Arroyo of allowing the private sector, especially farmers’ cooperatives and organizations to import rice, Sarmiento said. He added the NFA is also in the process of issuing import licenses to farmers organizations which would participate in the rice trade business.