QUEZON CITY, July 1(PIA) -– The National Food Authority (NFA) is deferring the arrival of rice imports to protect local farmers from the scare of a looming price depreciation due to the abundance of rice supply for the next three months.
In the Communication and News Exchange (CNEX) Forum held at the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) Conference Room on Friday, NFA Administrator Angelito T. Banayo stressed the sufficiency of the country’s rice supplies and its price stability as the reasons why NFA deferred said importation.
NFA is set to import 800,000 Metric Tons (MT) of rice for the year where three-fourths or 600,000 MT will be shouldered by the private sector leaving 200,000 MT for its own importation.
“Ang kulang na lamang dun sa 200,000 MT ay 63,000 MT. 137,000 MT na ang nakakarating. Pero hindi namin ito binebenta, derecho muna ito sa bodega kasi marami pa naman tayong bigas at pangalawa hanggang ngayon, very stable ang presyo ng bigas. Hindi tumataas ang presyo ng bigas,” (Out of the 200,000 MT, 137,000 MT were already delivered. However, these will not be sold; instead it will be delivered to warehouses for storage since we still have sufficient supply and the price of rice remain stable up to now, ) Administrator Banayo said.
“Dun naman sa pribadong sektor, 299,000 MT na ang nakarating as of yesterday. At dahil nga sa natatakot or nangangamba tayo na pagdating ng September na bumaba ang presyo, pinadedefer natin. Wag na muna nilang irush na iparating. Para naman ang farmers ay bumalanse naman tayo sa market situation,” (As for the private sector, 299,000 MT were already delivered as of yesterday. Due to possible price depreciation in September, we informed them to defer the delivery. They don’t need to rush it so as our local farmers would stay in competition with the market situation) Banayo added.
Banayo also assured an ample rice supply for the rest of the year. “Towards the later part of September, mag-aani na tayo so OK na tayo sa 2011,” (The later part of September will be harvest season, thus, we will be okay for 2011).
Meanwhile, Administrator Banayo said it is difficult to conduct any estimation on the volume of the country’s rice import on the next year as rice supply is always predicated on weather.
According to Banayo, it will be more appropriate to wait for the estimation that will be done by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics on October.
“Every typhoon like that of Ondoy would cost us an estimated loss of 200,000 MT, so we would rather wait for the official figures from the Department of Agriculture,” Banayo added. (JPL –PIA GHQ)
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