Private traders to import 780,000 MT of rice under MAV

Private traders are set to import 780,000 metric tons (MT) of rice under the Minimum Access Volume (MAV) program. The National Food Authority (NFA) conducted on Monday night the auction for 2017 to 2018 MAV rice importation program in compliance with Philippines’ commitment to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Under this scheme, the country has to fulfill the importation of 805,200 MT of rice as we gave up the WTObacked import quota for the staple.

NFA Grains and Marketing Chief Rocky Valdez said yesterday that of the total volume, only 19,000 MT, or those that are supposed to come from El Salvador and Australia, were not allocated.

To be specific, 348 private corporations, cooperatives, and Farmers Organizations (FO) participated in the bidding.

Valdez said that of these, only 15 to 20 percent will be awarded with supply contracts.

Under the importation guidelines, rice traders are allowed to source from countries with a specific quota (CSQ) or from other rice-producing countries (omnibus origin).

For the volume per origin, Thailand and Vietnam again have the highest maximum volume set for countries with specific quota at 293,100 MT

each.

China, India, and Pakistan were given 50,000 MT limit each, followed by Australia with 15,000 MT, and El Salvador with 4,000 MT. Rice imports from omnibus origin was limited to 50,000 MT.

The rice importation was limited to local importers composed of corporations, partnerships, sole proprietorship, joint ventures or farmers’ organizations.

Each company has a volume limit of 50,000 MT for non-FO while a single FO can only import up to 5,000 MT.

Allocations for Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao are also proportioned based on the 2018 national daily consumption requirements.

Of the total rice imports, 467,000 MT will be for Luzon (58 percent), 153,000 MT for Visayas (19 percent), and 185,000 MT for Mindanao (23 percent).

NFA Administrator Jason Aquino said that the schedule of arrival of the rice imports will be during the lean months so as not to affect the buying price of local palay prices among local traders.

The arrival of the rice imports is divided in two phases.

“First phase will start arriving in July until August 31, 2018, while the second phase will start on December 20, 2018 until February 28, 2019,” Aquino said.

Last year, 805,200 MT of rice was also approved for importation under MAV but only 746,962 MT were allocated.

Arrival of rice import scheduled for the Phase II of 2017 MAV is still ongoing until August 30, 2018 with 200,673 MT still expected to arrive.

Tariffs collected from MAV importation will go to Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, which is allocated to the agriculture sector.

The MAV importation is on top of the importation of 500,000 MT of rice through a government-to-government and government-to-private bidding that just recently took place.