NFA admits need to import rice

THE National Food Authority (NFA) on Monday said that it might consider importing rice for the next few months to assure stability of supply during the so-called lean months.

NFA Administrator Lito Banayo cited an inventory made by the NFA Council, which who decides on the volume to be imported.

The Departments of Agriculture, of Finance, of Trade and Industry and of Science and Technology are among those represented in the council.

“The buffer stocks are no longer that much compares to last year when we had enough rice,” Banayo told reporters during the weekly forum Kapihan sa Diamond Hotel in Manila.

“But these stocks were distributed and sold and we need to replenish them,” he said.

Acording to Banayo, he has not signed any permit to import rice since his appointment as NFA administrator on July 10, 2010.

He admitted that the government lost several millions of pesos in taxes to smugglers who were able to bring rice and other commodities to many ports in the country.

Banayo, however, did not elaborate.

He said that the Philippines is importing rice from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan.

Banayo also declined to give the exact volume of rice imports, saying that revealing the number could trigger higher prices.

He assured local farmers that the government will still buy palay (unhusked rice) at P17 a kilo to give them more earnings and encourage private rice traders to buy the palay at higher prices.

Undersecretary Joel Rudinas of the Agriculture department also told the forum that they are monitoring the quality of rice that would be imported to assure the public that the quality is at par with that of commercial rice being sold in the market. –Sammy Martin, Reporter, Manila Times

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