The country’s rice imports from January to October expanded by 16.24 percent year-on-year to 2.242 million metric tons (MMT), already surpassing its total volume of imported staple for the entirety of 2020, latest government data showed.
Latest Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) data showed that the country’s rice imports during the 10-month period grew by 313,334.883 metric tons (MT) from the 1.929 MMT it imported during the same period of last year.
Furthermore, BPI data showed that the volume of rice imported from January to October already exceeded by 6.8 percent the 2.099 MMT of rice imported for the entirety of last year.
BPI data also showed that total rice imports from January to November 4 has reached 2.290 MMT with eligible importers and traders using 2,722 sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances (SPS-ICs).
Nan Stu Agri Traders topped the list of 145 rice importers during the reference period as it imported 128,668 MT of the staple grain as of November 4, based on BPI data. It was followed by Lucky Buy and Sell that imported 110,152 MT of rice.
BPI data also showed that from January to October the agency has issued some 5,484 SPS-ICs to import 4.876 MMT of rice for the year.
Vietnam remained the country’s top source of imported rice as it accounted for 1.959 MMT of the 2.290 MMT total volume as of November 4. It was followed by Myanmar and Thailand with import volume of 158,268.9 MT and 114,515 MT, respectively, based on BPI data.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) earlier projected that the Philippines may import more rice this year as local traders are expected to increase their purchases from Vietnam.
The USDA has also projected that Bangladesh will overtake the Philippines as the world’s second-largest buyer of rice this year.
Last month, the USDA revised upward its rice import forecast for the Philippines this year by 200,000 MT to 2.3 MMT from its previous estimate of 2.1 MMT.
The USDA hiked its import forecast due to the “strong pace and large purchases from Vietnam” by Philippine rice traders and importers.
Despite the projected increase in the country’s rice purchases this year, the estimate is still 145,000 MT lower than the 2.45 MMT the Philippines imported last year, USDA data showed.
Image courtesy of Nonie Reyes