No more rice importation this year — NFA

MANILA, Philippines - Ignoring a blueprint from the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) that would address high rice prices and “possibly lower them,” the National Food Authority (NFA) has announced it will no longer import rice this year.

NFA administrator Orlan Calayag made the announcement on Tuesday despite a memorandum for President Aquino from NEDA on Sept. 10 recommending an “immediate importation of half a million metric tons of rice to address the supply gap and stabilize prices.”

The memo, written by NEDA director-general Arsenio Balisacan and copy furnished to NFA chairperson and Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, warned that “even if rice production recovers in the last quarter of 2013, deficits are expected to be incurred from as low as 0.5 million MT to as high as 1.4 million MT.”

Despite the NEDA recommendation, Calayag, in a statement released Tuesday, said the government “has no plans to import an additional volume of rice for this year.”

Balisacan could not be reached for comment.

Balisacan, a former Department of Agriculture undersecretary, had in previously published papers stressed the importance of “relieving the NFA of the burden of handling rice imports” because of the possibility of corruption-tainted transactions.

Calayag’s statement also contradicted NEDA forecasts on rice production shortfalls.

The country’s independent economic development and planning agency estimates local rice production to hit 18.45 million MT – a figure less than the 20 million MT the DA maintains necessary to meet the needs of the country’s 97 million people.

NEDA’s estimates are consistent with the DA’s Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, whose head, Assistant Secretary Romeo Recide, testified in Congress that local rice production would hit 18.45 million MT.

Recide also testified that the country would need an additional half a million tons of rice to meet local demand for 2013.

Despite the disparity in numbers, Calayag said “current rice inventories and the incoming bulk of the main harvest are already enough for the country’s requirements.”

Alcala has repeatedly claimed that the county would be able to produce 20 million metric tons of rice this year and that the country will be rice self-sufficient by the end of 2013.

Despite assurances from the DA and NFA that rice prices would stabilize by September, the prices of regular and well-milled rice continued to hit record highs in September.

According to data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, the average retail price per kilo of regular milled rice for September 2013 was recorded at P36 – the highest this year or P4 more than pre-lean season prices and P3.60 per kilo more than in the same period last year.

The average retail price per kilo of well-milled rice likewise hit an annual high, with prices pegged at P39.2 per kilo, P4 more than pre-lean season prices and P3.70 per kilo more than in September 2012.