Rice-supply pact likely between Philippines, Cambodia

Wednesday, 02 May 2012

By Jennifer A. Ng 

Reporter for Business Mirror

MANILA may sign a rice-supply agreement with Phnom Penh next week, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Wednesday.

“If I’ll be given the authority [to sign the agreement] by the President, we might sign it next week,” Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala told reporters at the sidelines of the opening of the 45th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of Asian Development (ADB) held in Pasay City.

The Philippines has an existing rice-supply agreement with Vietnam and Thailand. Hanoi has agreed to supply Manila as much as 1.5 million metric tons (MMT) of rice, while Thailand could supply a maximum of 1 MMT, depending on their available stocks.

The DA chief said the signing of the rice-supply agreement between the Philippines and Cambodia could be pushed back until the third week of May.

“But if a situation will arise that may compromise our local inventory, the agreement may be signed sooner that expected,” he said.

Alcala said the government will probably buy the remaining 120,000 metric tons (MT) of the original import volume of 500,000 MT from Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand under a government-to-government arrangement.

Manila could initially buy 70,000 MT from either Vietnam or Thailand or from both countries and purchase the remaining 50,000 MT from Cambodia.

Alcala said he met with the Cambodian ambassador to the Philippines recently to discuss Phnom Penh’s request to allow it to export rice via a special trade arrangement.

He said the trade arrangement “may not involve money” as the two countries could “swap preferred agricultural products.”

“Once the agreement is signed, the Philippines can actually pay in kind. I understand [Cambodia] needs poultry products as well as fertilizers,” said Alcala.

The National Food Authority (NFA) Council has authorized the importation of as much as 500,000 MT of rice for 2012 to beef up the country’s rice supply prior to the lean months for palay.

The NFA has already auctioned off a total of 380,000 MT of milled rice on behalf of the private sector. The remaining volume would have to be bought under a government-to-government deal.

Under the importation guidelines, the imported rice should arrive in the Philippines not later than June 30.