THE Philippines recorded higher rice imports as of mid-April compared to last year's level, data from the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) showed.
Latest report from the BPI showed that the country's rice imports from January 1 to April 19 went up by 7.95 percent to 1.42 million metric tons (MT), higher in comparison to last year's 1.31 million MT. The BPI is an agency under the Department of Agriculture (DA).
For April alone, rice deliveries were tallied at 243,710.92 MT, which is less than half the 516,895.17 MT posted a year earlier.
Since the year started, the BPI has released a total of 1,952 sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances to accredited importers.
Vietnam remains the country's top source of the staple from January 1 to April 19, shipping 955,817.87 MT of rice or 67.14 percent of total imports.
Thailand delivered some 265,019.64 MT of rice, Pakistan followed with 133,984.50 MT, and some 59,880 MT came from Myanmar.
The remaining volume, meanwhile, came from China, Japan, Cambodia, India, Italy and Spain.
Last year, inbound shipments of the staple totaled 3.6 million MT, down 5.9 percent from the record-high 3.82 million MT logged in 2022. For this year, the DA projects rice imports not exceeding last year's import volume.
Local rice inventory, meanwhile, declined by 3.0 percent as of March 1, the Philippine Statistics Authority said. Rice inventory at the beginning of March was estimated at 1.37 million MT, lower compared to the 1.41 million MT logged in the same period of 2023.
On a monthly basis, rice stocks declined by 9.6 percent compared to the 1.51 million MT logged on February 1.
With those developments, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. assured that the country has enough rice stocks amid the El Niño and despite the temporary closure of several warehouses of the National Food Authority.
Tiu Laurel also said that the country's rice imports for this year were unlikely to reach the 4 million MMT forecast of the United States Department of Agriculture.
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