RP seeks WB help on rice imports
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:05:00 04/29/2008
Filed Under: rice problem, International (Foreign)Trade, Agriculture
MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines has asked the World Bank to persuade rice-exporting nations to lift shipment curbs that threaten the food security of importing countries, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said Monday.
"I have asked the World Bank if it's possible to use its moral persuasion, its stature, its influence to talk to the supplier countries," Yap said on television.
He noted that exporters seemed to be afraid to release their rice into the international market. "It's going against pricing. We need to convince them that they must release the flow of supply," he said.
Rice exporting countries such as India and Vietnam have banned exports of Asia's staple to cool domestic inflation, putting pressure on the Philippines, the world's largest rice importer, which is trying to secure stockpiles ahead of a traditional lean period in the third quarter.
The Philippines said it would import 2.1 million metric tons of rice this year.
It is holding a tender for 675,000 MT of rice next week and the International Grains Council has said prices could be around $1,500 to $1,600 a ton.
At a tender earlier this month, prices hit $1,136 per ton, 60 percent higher than the previous tender in March.
The National Food Authority secured 1.56 million tons from the past four tenders.
RP demand pushes prices up
The Philippines' recent flurry of rice tenders has helped propel rice prices to record highs and Yap said the country was looking at ways of buying stocks without alerting the world to how much it needs, as currently happens in public bidding, propelling the cost higher.
"There is a lot of concern that tendering big volumes at this point in time tends to increase prices," said Yap.
"We want to explore a procurement or buying system that is not going to expose us to the speculative pricing attacks that we see right now in the international commodity markets," he said, without giving further details.
Self-sufficient by 2010
To ensure self-sufficiency in rice by 2010, agriculture officials and farm experts are firming up a master plan to boost palay (unhusked rice) harvests over the next two years.
Yap said the rice self-sufficiency plan was anchored on heavy and sustained investments in irrigation maintenance; seed and fertilizer subsidies; harnessing rain-fed and upland areas for palay production; better watershed management; and involvement of local government units.
The agriculture chief said this medium-term intensified production program would soon be submitted by the Department of Agriculture to Malacańang for the President's approval.
"Given the global signs that the era of cheap food is over, this master plan aims to make the Philippines self-sufficient anew in rice and enable it to ride out the emerging global food crunch," Yap said.
Consensus
Incumbent and former agriculture officials, along with scientists and other farm experts, are now putting the finishing touches on the self-sufficiency plan, he said.
Yap said the decision to focus on spending heavily on fertilizer and seed subsidies and other measures was the result of the consensus reached among agriculture officials and the Eminent Persons Group.
The group is an advisory panel that Yap formed earlier this month to help the agriculture department oversee the implementation of FIELDS, the P43.7-billion package of measures that the President laid out during the National Food Summit.
FIELDS stands for fertilizers, irrigation and other infrastructure, extension and education, loans, dryers and post-harvest facilities, and seeds.
"Among the points we have agreed upon is to focus on production support for irrigated lands so that we can improve the per-hectare yield in these prime areas from the current target of 4 tons to an even higher 5-6 tons per hectare," Yap said.
Higher farm spending boosted the country's self-sufficiency level to at least 90 percent last year, up from the 87 percent in 2006.
For 2008, the Department of Agriculture targets 92.4 percent self-sufficiency in rice with a projected palay production of 17.3 million tons.
Of this volume, at least 7.1 million is expected to be harvested during the summer and another 10 million during the wet season. Reports from Reuters and Amy R. Remo
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