MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - Despite the losses that the farm sector is now incurring due to the El Nino episode, government officials said on Tuesday that they do not see the additional importation of rice as a pressing need at this time.
Officials from the National Food Authority (NFA) said that the country's granary still has enough rice and that Manila is expecting more delivery of imported rice in the coming months.
"(Importing rice) is not immediate as others would say. The possibility of importing (rice) is there, but we still have much to consume," said NFA Assistant Administrator Jose Cordero.
Cordero noted that around 400,000 metric tons of rice have already arrived and that about 1.7 million metric tons (MMT) will still be shipped to Manila.
Currently, the country's rice inventory stands at 2.6 MMT, of which 1.2 MMT are in the households, 1 MMT are with the NFA and about 417,100 metric tons are with the commercial sector.
The NFA official noted that the government will have to review the impact of El Nino on farmlands all over the country.
For the whole of 2010, the Bureau of Agricultural Statics project palay output to reach 17.4 MMT or 7 percent higher than the 16.26 MMT paddy rice production in 2009.
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