RP scraps monopoly on rice imports

RP scraps monopoly on rice imports

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said on Friday
rice imports would finally be thrown open and a state monopoly on
buying the staple dismantled in the next few months.

She said this year's import requirements of 390,000 tons would
be brought in by farmers and other private firms and that state
trading firm National Food Authority (NFA) will now focus
attention on building up buffer stock from local rice harvests.

Arroyo vowed last year to dismantle the monopoly of NFA, the
only firm allowed to directly import rice since 1983, to put a
stop to smuggling.

"NFA will not do any importation (this year). NFA will use its
budget to buy palay (unmilled rice) from the farmers," Arroyo
said at a news conference.

The Philippines, one of Asia's largest rice importers, bought
780,000 tons of the grain last year.

Arroyo said rice imports will be lower this year as the
domestic unmilled rice harvest in 2002 was estimated to hit a
record 13.3 million tons from last year's 12.95 million with the
distribution of higher-yielding seeds to farmers.

Out of the 390,000 tons which the country would import this
year, some 195,000 tons would be bought by farmers, she said.

State-owned Land Bank of the Philippines has said it was ready
to extend loans of about 2.9 billion pesos ($56.5 million) to
farmers to enable them to import rice.

Arroyo said importation of the remaining 195,000 tons would
be totally liberalized. Under this plan, each importer can bring
in no more than 10,000 tons, she said.-Reuters.