The country’s rice imports from January to May has reached over 1 million metric tons (MMT) as private traders brought in over 300,000 metric tons (MT) of staple in May alone, latest government data showed.
Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) data analyzed by the BusinessMirror showed that over 150 private traders and importers have brought in about 1.086 MMT of rice during the five-month period.
The importers, which are companies, farmers organizations, cooperatives, used about 1,440 sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPS-IC).
The bulk of the imports, or about 968,329.885 MT, during the five-month period came from Vietnam, BPI data showed.
BPI data also showed that the importers have already used at least about 38 percent of the total 3,749 SPS-ICs issued to them to bring in more than 3.1 MMT of rice.
With the remaining unused SPS-ICs, eligible traders and importers could still bring in about 2 MMT of rice this year, based on BPI data.
Arvin International Marketing Inc. topped the importers list with total rice imported volume during the five-month period of 57,620.02 MT followed by Gold and Perfect Corp. at 54,644 MT, according to BPI data.
During the five-month period, the private sector imported the most volume of rice in May at 324,030.415 MT. The volume was 9.37 percent higher than the 296,273.2 MT recorded volume in the same month of last year, based on BPI data.
BPI data also showed that May imports were the highest monthly volume recorded since the rice industry was deregulated in March 2019 after Republic Act 11203, or Rice Trade Liberalization law was enacted.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) has been urging the private sector to continuously apply for SPS-IC and bring in rice shipments to ensure that the country has sufficient stockpile during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) projected that the Philippines would remain the world’s top rice buyer for the consecutive year this 2020 with a total purchase of 2.5 MMT.
In fact, the Philippines’s rice imports next year may rise by a third to a record 3.3 MMT, making it the world’s top rice buyer for the third straight year ahead of China, according to USDA.
USDA attributed the increase to “tighter” stocks coupled by lower production, which it projected to fall by 3.5 percent to 11 MMT next year. USDA estimated the local milled rice production this year could decline by almost 3 percent to 11.4 MMT from 11.732 MMT last year.
“With lower production and tighter stocks, larger imports are expected to enable consumption to rise marginally,” it said in the report.
“The 2019 rice tariffication law has made imports more available in the market, depressing overall milled rice prices,” it added.