NFA Council approves award of 673 K MT rice under MAV

The interagency National Food Authority Council (NFAC) has approved the awarded volume for rice importation under the minimum access volume (MAV) scheme following a recent oversubscribed open auction.

NFAC awarded 673,000 metric tons (MT) of rice to 73 farmer organizations and 57 non-farmer organizations.

“We will start giving the notification of award to winning bidders so they can pay their balance to the Land Bank of the Philippines,” an NFA source told The STAR.

The entire MAV is 805,200 MT and the awarded volume left an excess of 132,200 MT.

For the excess volume, the committee earlier agreed to allow the second highest bidder to fill up whatever is left from the lots that were not taken.

The auction last June 25 was oversubscribed after the Bureau of the Treasury received bids for about 1.8 million MT, more than double the MAV volume.

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, 153,000 MT for Visayas, and 185,000 MT for Mindanao.

Eight lots were bid out representing allocation on a per area basis in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao per type of organization and per country of origin.

For the volume per origin, Thailand and Vietnam 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 first batch of rice imports will arrive in July 2018 to not later than Aug. 31 while the second batch will arrive Dec. 20, 2018 to not later than Feb. 28, 2019.

MAV refers to the volume of a specific agricultural product that is allowed to import with a lower tariff as a commitment of the Philippines under the provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of the World Trade Organization.

The annual MAV importation is being shouldered by the private sector.