Philippines sees 2021 minimum rice import requirement at 1.69 mln T

MANILA, Jan 7 (Reuters) - The Philippines, the world's
biggest rice importer, will need to bring in at least 1.69
million tonnes of its staple food this year to fully cover
domestic requirements, a government official said on Thursday.
The Southeast Asian country is playing down the risks of
domestic rice supply tightening this year, despite a global
market grappling with shipping delays and a worldwide rush to
stockpile food. Its minimum rice import requirement for 2021 is enough to
ensure the country, which buys more than 90% of import
requirements from Vietnam, will have the required 90-day buffer
stock ahead of the lean domestic harvest season beginning July,
said Agriculture Undersecretary Ariel Cayanan.
Despite crop losses due to strong typhoons in the latter
part of 2020, the Philippines was projected to have attained a
record harvest of 19.44 million tonnes last year, Agriculture
Secretary William Dar said earlier this week.
For 2021 the Philippines is aiming to produce 20.48 million
tonnes of unmilled rice.
Last year's imports were estimated at 2.3 million tonnes,
compared with a record 2.9 million tonnes in 2019, when it
lifted a two-decade-old restriction on the size of annual
imports.
Since 2019, importers have been bringing in higher volumes
than actual requirements, helping temper food inflation but
hurting local farmers.
The United States Department of Agriculture has projected
the Philippines' rice import volume this year to reach 2.3
million tonnes.
Vietnam, the world's third biggest rice exporter, recently
bought the grain from rival India for the first time in decades,
after local prices jumped to their highest in nine years amid
limited domestic supplies. Cayanan described the move by Vietnam as a strategy to keep
global prices elevated, but he said its impact on the
Philippines could be mitigated by improving the country's rice
self-sufficiency level.