Philippine Rice Imports May Hit New Record With 200K MT Buy OKed By Government

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Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The Philippines, the world’s biggest rice importer, will allow private companies to buy 200,000 metric tons, boosting purchases to a record this year, a National Food Authority official said.

The private purchases will take the country’s imports to 2.45 million tons, Romeo Jimenez, the authority’s managing director, said in a phone interview from Manila today. That will exceed the record 2.4 million tons bought in 2008, when fears of a global food shortage sent prices to an all-time high.

It’s “possible” the Philippines, which accelerated purchases after storms last year destroyed about 1.3 million tons of rice, may buy 3 million tons this year as El Nino parches crops, Jimenez said. The government limit of 2.4 million tons on 2010’s state rice purchases, set late last year, hasn’t been raised yet, he said.

“That will start to fuel demand” and support global prices, Jonathan Barratt, managing director at Commodity Broking Services Pty. in Sydney, said by phone today. Still, a strengthening dollar may limit gains in commodities traded in the U.S. currency, he added. “Everything else will take a second seat” to the dollar, Barratt said.

EDIT

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-18/philippines-to-boost-rice-imports-to-record-nfa-says-update1-.html