India has agreed to supply the Philippines with as much as 295,000 metric tons (MT) of non-basmati white rice, the country’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry said on Wednesday.
The allocation, posted as a notice dated 18 October this year, is the biggest shipment to six countries handled by India’s National Cooperative Exports Ltd.
Apart from the Philippines, India also agreed to supply non-basmati white rice to Nepal, Cameroon, Cote d’ Ivore, Republic of Guinea, Malaysia and Seychelles for a total 1.03 million MT of the grains.
Prior to this, India in July stopped exporting non-basmati white rice as its own food inflation data proved problematic.
Nevertheless, the Department of Agriculture (DA) began negotiations with Vietnam and India the following August for the purchase of the staple to augment supply and ease price pressures in markets.
Earlier this month, Gerald Glenn Panganiban, director at the Bureau of Plant and Industry (BPI), said the supply of the staple in the final three months of the year remains adequate and stable.
Panganiban said farmers look to harvest 1.9 million MT of the grains this month that should boost the buffer stock to 74 days from 52 days at present.
DA monitoring of public markets in the National Capital Region show the price of local well-milled rice selling from P45 to P48 per kilo; and regular milled rice from P41 to P45 per kilo.
Imported well milled rice sell from P45 to P48 per kilo while imported regular milled rice sell for P43 per kilo.
Imported special variety rice sell from P53 to P60 per kilo and only P52 to P58 for premium.
For local rice, special variety sell from P54 to P62 per kilo and premium from P47 to P60 per kilo.
According to data from the National Plant Quarantine Services Division of the Bureau of Plant Industry, 2.68 million MT of rice have been imported as of 5 October this year.
The bulk or 89 percent of the imports or 2.4 million MT were from Vietnam while only 13,579.39 MT or 0.5 percent came from India.
Raul Montemayor, Federation of Free Farmers national manager, said the planned rice import from India is not a guarantee of anything.
“First, it depends on the price. Second and most important, the quality. In the past, local importers did not secure rice from India despite significantly lower prices, most probably due to concerns about quality and reliability of supply,” Montemayor said.
