Agence-France Presse, Kuala Lumpur

Agence-France Presse, Kuala Lumpur

East Asian agriculture ministers Friday agreed to speed up plans to set up an emergency rice reserve system to cope with crises and strengthen food security.

A steady supply of rice -- the staple diet in East Asia -- is key to regional food security, ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan and South Korea said in a joint statement after a two-day meeting here.

"The ministers noted that a management team would be established early next year to carry out the pilot project of the East Asian Emergency Rice Reserve and called for accelerated progress," the statement said.

Azmi Mat Akhir, a director with the Jakarta-based ASEAN secretariat, said East Asian ministers "agreed in principle" to carry out the pilot scheme and implementation would be on a voluntary basis.

Although the region produces 90 percent of rice in the world, only four countries -- China, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar -- are rice exporters, he said.

"We want to ensure there is enough of rice for our needs, that in times of emergency there is ready stock. The basic idea is to provide rice for a friend in need," he told reporters.

He said for instance that floods were a major problem affecting crops in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

Azmi said creating a buffer stock was unlikely because it would be too expensive.

But each country could keep surplus stock to cope with crises while more advanced members such as Singapore could provide financial assistance to buy rice to help those in need, he said.

Details would be worked out by the management team, headed by Thailand, and the pilot scheme would be conducted as soon as possible, he added.

The ministers expressed full support for Cambodia's accession to the World Trade Organization at the next ministerial meeting in September.

In a separate statement, ASEAN ministers said they would form a special taskforce to collectively address the problem of unfair trade affecting their food, agriculture and forestry products.

Malaysia's Agriculture Minister Mohamad Effendi Norwawi said ASEAN products were at a disadvantage because of high agricultural subsidies, to the tune of nearly US$1 billion a day, by rich countries.

"This makes our products uncompetitive and there is a possibility of their products coming to our countries and displacing our local products because they are highly subsidised," he said.

"It is time for ASEAN to come out with common plans on how to deal with this in a more organized way."

Ministers also agreed to set up an ASEAN food safety network, headed by Thailand, to coordinate efforts to resolve problems of non-tariff barriers that shackled the region's agricultural exports.

Myanmar will host the next meeting in 2004.