Philippines is canceling gov’t-to-gov’t import of 300,000 MT rice from Vietnam -DTI chief

The Philippines is no longer proceeding with the planned government-to-government (G2G) importation of 300,000 metric ton (MT) of rice from Vietnam after the Southeast Asian country lifted its ban on rice exportation.

The move was announced by Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez on Friday, citing official communication from Agriculture Secretary William Dar.

Following the notice from Dar, Lopez said the Department of Trade and Industry-attached agency Philippine International Trading Center (PITC) abandoned the rice importation plan, which was initially targeted to arrive during the lean months of July and August. 

The PITC is the agency tasked to implement any directive from the Department of Agriculture to import rice under a G2G arrangement, pursuant to the Rice Tariffication Law.

“The provisions of the RTL basically opens up rice importation to any private group,” Lopez said.

“It will be recalled that the initial decision for the G2G importation plan was a result of the potential threat to maintaining a good buffer supply of rice for the country. Earlier computations from DA showed a threat to the targeted level of buffer stock following the imposed ban of rice exportation of Vietnam in April,” the Trade chief said.

Vietnam serves as a major import source of the Philippines, accounting for over 90% of our country’s rice imports.

The Philippines imports around 7% to 14% of its total rice requirement. 

Vietnam has initially banned exporting rice to ensure food security amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lopez said that upon intervention of President Rodrigo Duterte, the Vietnamese government, through Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, agreed to lift its rice export ban policy making a commitment to that “Vietnam will contribute to securing a stable supply of food in the country.”

"With the lifting of the rice export ban of Vietnam, we can expect more comfortable buffer stock levels moving forward," the Trade chief said.

For his part, Dar said that with the rice imports handled by the private sector traders as stipulated by the Ric Tariffication Law, their purchase of rice imports will mean generating greater tariff revenues for the government which will be used to fund the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).

“RCEF is meant to boost productivity and income of the country’s rice farmers,” the Agriculture chief said. -MDM, GMA News