Philippines have enough rice stock

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap claimed on Wednesday that the damage wrought by two storms that hit the country in the last two weeks has not affected the National Food Authority's (NFA) rice stock for this year.

"We can see that the NFA has a sufficient stock of rice," Yap told ABS-CBN's Umagang Kay Ganda as he personally checked the prices of rice in a local market in Manila on Wednesday morning.

He said the prices of varieties of commercial rice in the local markets in the country still range from P30 to P40 per kilogram.

Yap said if the NFA had no sufficient stock of rice, the market prices will increase to more than P50 per kilogram, just like what happened during the rice shortage in 2008.

The secretary, meanwhile, confirmed that the government may still import rice from other rice-producing countries, probably in the coming days or months.

Yap added that the government is also planning to import pork and poultry products by November 15 to augment the country's decreasing supply.

NFA spokesman Rex Estoperez said the damage to rice crops from typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng would be felt by the country in the first half of 2010.

"We do not know [yet] how much to import," Estoperez told local radio. "We expect that this week, the inter-agency committee will have the final figure on how much we need."

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo wants the importation of food items done at the earliest time possible.

Vietnam and Thailand are traditional rice suppliers to the Philippines, but Vietnam's rice-growing areas have also been hit by typhoons.

Estoperez said the Philippines is considering at least 6 sources besides Vietnam, including Thailand and India.

So far, the Philippines has imported 1.775 million tons of milled rice in 2009, versus a record 2.3 million last year, which helped drive grain prices to all-time highs.

Before the storms hit the country, an industry official in Vietnam said in August that Hanoi may have struck a new pact to sell 400,000 tons of rice to Manila.

Total damage from the storms in the Philippines to crops, mostly rice, has reached 7.63 billion pesos ($164 million), the agriculture department said.