Government will import rice after all

The Philippine government has apparently backtracked on its original plan to let the private sector import the entire 500,000-metric ton rice buffer requirement for 2012.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala on Wednesday said the government was now “considering” importing 120,000 metric tons of rice from abroad under a government-to-government contract to fill the shortfall in the private sector importation program.

The National Food Authority (NFA) recently announced it was scheduled to bid only 380,000 metric tons of rice this month—to be divided equally between farmers’ cooperatives and commercial rice traders. Kristine L. Alave

Originally posted at 04:47 pm | Wednesday, March 14,  2012