Monday, July 12, 2004
More Vietnam rice arrives

KORONADAL CITY -- Some 15,000 bags of imported rice from Vietnam arrived Friday at the National Food Authority (NFA) warehouse to augment South Cotabato's rice stocks which were earlier declared to be at the critical level.

Rey Salvatierra, NFA provincial manager, said the new imported rice shipment was part of the province's allocation out of the 600,000 metric tons imported by the NFA central office for the foreseen lean season starting this month to September.

He said they started to transfer the new stocks to their warehouse from the regional warehouse in General Santos City.

"This brings our imported stocks to 25,000 bags and I think these are enough to offset our projected rice shortage," Salvatierra said.

Last week, some 10,000 bags of rice initially arrived at the NFA warehouse here, the first shipment in about two years.

The South Cotabato provincial board earlier issued a resolution prohibiting the entry of imported rice in the province as it reportedly competes with the produce of local farmers.

But last month, the board passed another measure that finally allowed the local NFA to take appropriate actions including importation and to ensure a stable supply of rice especially during lean months.

Salvatierra said Vietnam rice is being sold at P18 per kilo or P900 per 50-kilo sack.

Luisito Mangayayam, NFA chief information officer, said accredited retailers would be allowed to obtain 30 bags at most per week. NFA has 184 retailers, which means it would release 5,520 bags per week.

He said South Cotabato consumes 5,444 bags of rice per day, a big portion of it sold by private traders.

Presently, the price per kilo of locally produced rice is between P21 to P23, much higher than the cost of NFA rice.

Mangayayam assured the NFA would not distribute the imported rice when farmers start harvesting the bulk of their palay by late August.

He said doing otherwise would bring down the farm gate price of palay.

The South Cotabato agriculture office earlier recommended the entry of imported rice in the province as harvests fell early this year due to pest infestation, particularly by rodents and rice tungro virus.

The pest infestation damaged at least 10,000 hectares of corn and rice farms, about 2,000 hectares of which are ready for harvest, worth P71-million.

well thats cool. Viet Cuong really likes this, as pi and viet is getting along!

Its just AF, that we're all messed up and fighting everyone. ..

we khmer krom love to grows rice and help people. so please do not take our farm away or kill us anymore okay?

Khmer rouge do it so why not?

LOL what is going on?

News update (Sorry for double posting):


R.P. buys 50,000 tons of rice, mainly from Vietnam

The Philippines bought an additional 50,000 tons of rice on Thursday from the suppliers that won its tender this month to provide 200,000 tons for July/August deliveries.


"The suppliers agreed to the same price and terms," an official of National Food Authority (NFA) told Reuters, referring to deals struck earlier.


The official said Vietnam Southern Food Corp. (Vinafood), a state trading firm, agreed to provide 37,500 tons. The remainder will come from four other foreign trading firms.


The fresh imports of 250,000 tons would bring the total this year to 985,000 tons against 945,000 tons last year.


On July 6, the Philippines, one of Asia's largest rice importers, had awarded a tender to five suppliers, including Vinafood.


In that tender, the NFA bought 150,000 tons of 25 percent broken rice from Vinafood at $243.98 per ton C&F.


It also bought 15,000 tons of 25 percent broken rice each from Toepfer International Asia Pte Ltd. and Thai Maparn Co Ltd. at $243.80 per ton C&F and $241.45 per ton, respectively.


The Philippines purchased 5,000 tons of 25 percent broken rice from Daewoo International at $244 per ton C&F and 15,000 tons of 15-percent broken rice from Noble Grain Pte Ltd. at $240.35 per ton.
Reuters/abs-cbnNEWS.com