Aquino: Philippines has 100-day rice supply

President Benigno Aquino III. EDWIN BACASMAS/INQUIRER photo

TARLAC CITY—President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday announced that the country had an adequate supply of rice—good for 100 days—despite the strong typhoons that damaged crops in Luzon in the past months.

In his speech before the 8th National Organic Agriculture Conference at the Hacienda Luisita, President Aquino indicated that the Philippines’ rice supply was so good that it already has him considering exporting to other countries.

“To tell you the truth, whenever (Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala) sends me numbers, I compute the figures and tell him, ‘Procy, I think we can already afford to export,’” President Aquino said in jest.

“He said, ‘There are still expected typhoons. Some other time, perhaps,’” Mr. Aquino added.

President Aquino said private traders already bought the bulk of the damaged unhusked rice that the government intended to buy.

The government had allotted P1 billion to buy damaged palay at P11 per kilo in the wake of typhoons “Pedring” and “Quiel” that ravaged rice-producing provinces in the past two months.

“That P1 billion was to buy palay at P11 per kilo and we can only buy 20 percent of the damaged rice to help the farmers who lost their capital,” President Aquino said.

“Before we could even buy, private traders had reportedly bought most of it. They even bought at P14 per kilo. What’s left for the government to buy was 20 percent of the 20 percent that we intended to buy,” he added.

President Aquino said he expects a 100-day supply of rice at 34,000 metric tons per day.

“I expect that by January, of course including this Christmas in December, we would really have enough rice,” President Aquino said.