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.