ONLY 15,000 metric tons (MT) of rice has been awarded out of a total of 350,000 MT private-sector import volume allocated to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said.
In a news conference on Wednesday, Mr. Piñol said: “We have the DTI 350,000 MT, of which only 15,000 has been awarded… The problem is that they did not know that the NFA (National Food Authority) has a requirement that the importer needs to have a warehouse.”
Mr. Piñol said that DTI has so far only endorsed Puregold as an importer to the National Food Authority (NFA) which is in charge of granting import permits to approved companies.
At the height of the rice crisis the DTI offered its self as a channel for private rice imports, in the hope that it could directly course large volumes to the retailers and food companies which it regulates.
“The DTI arrangement is one-time only, with no deadline,” Mr. Piñol. He added that Robinsons Supermarket, through its parent Universal Robina Corp. (URC) chairman Lance Y. Gokongwei, has expressed interest to take part in the DTI’s importation program.
“I think Robinsons is interested. I spoke to Lance Gokongwei, who is interested, not only in rice importation but also in linking up with our farmers for the production of good-quality rice. I would like to commend Robinsons for being the first to signify its intention to link up with farmers,” Mr. Piñol said.
It can be recalled that URC has earlier donated P5 million worth of table potato seeds from Canada to the DA for distribution to farmers in Benguet, Mountain Province, Bukidnon and Davao del Sur.
Meanwhile, the NFA Council has approved the out-of-quota importation of rice, with participants required to demonstrate financial, warehousing and retailing capability.
Asked whether the out-of-quota imports will clash with the DTI program, Mr. Piñol said: “The DTI came first. It was a program presented to us. This was approved long before we decided on the out-of-quota program.” — Reicelene Joy N. Ignacio
