Reclaiming our root crops
By: Gideon Lasco - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:04 AM March 05,
2020
Most Filipinos today consider rice as by far our most
important, if not our one and only, staple food, a sine qua non of our daily
meals. Whether one’s viand is bistek Tagalog, lechon Cebu, fried chicken, or
sautéed fish, it is cooked with rice in mind.
In some parts of the country, the primacy of rice has
been around for centuries;
Pigafetta noted as much. But the same cannot be said of
other areas where it was root crops that people ate regularly. Even where rice
was a staple, root crops shared its place among the commonly consumed foods, as
in sinigang which was meant to be a complete meal, with gabi serving as
carbohydrate source. Our ancestors would have been none the poorer. Unlike
rice, which is relatively labor- and land-intensive, root crops grow even in
unfavorable conditions. They also have nutritional profiles superior to white
rice. Gabi (taro), for instance, is rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals, and
the leaves are edible, too (laing!). Beyond gabi, ube (purple yam), and the New
World-sourced kamote (sweet potato), and kamoteng kahoy (cassava)—each of which
has different varieties—we have dozens of root crop species with their unique
flavors and profiles.
What can explain the shift to rice?
People might respond by saying “well, rice tastes much
better.” But even taste, a subjective quality, is shaped by culture; our
fondness for rice draws from our having been eating it since childhood and our
meals having been designed to complement rice. There must be a stronger
explanation for the relative decline of root crops in our consciousness.
One answer involves changing attitudes toward both rice
and root crops. As the physical anthropologist Francisco Datar said in the
Ugnayang Pang-Aghamtao (UGAT) conference last November in Visayas State
University, Baybay, Leyte, rice was — and still is — perceived as a “prestige
food” in various parts of the archipelago, leading to its desirability and
eventual ubiquity. Conversely, root crops were seen as an inferior food,
leading to their being shunned by people. We still see this low regard for root
crops today in expressions like “kinakamote” and the very telling “Go home and
plant kamote!”
Agricultural technologies that have made rice widely
available are another contributory (and corollary) factor, with rice varieties
today far more productive in yield than those in the past. Even with rice
shortages, the ease of importing all but guarantees rice’s ubiquity, even as
the economics of it raises questions of equity for our rice farmers.
Conversely, despite the efforts of scientists (there are
Root Crops Research and Training Centers in Baybay, Leyte, and La Trinidad,
Benguet, not to mention the work of DOST and UPLB), there has been relatively
little investment in root crops, whether in terms of agricultural research,
food technology, or marketing.
This marginality of root crops is unfortunate for a
number of reasons. As mentioned earlier, root crops are actually very
nutritious, and hold the potential to enrich our culinary heritage. Although
ube is beloved by Filipinos as a dessert and is increasingly being recognized
abroad, we miss out by ignoring other varieties and species. In the UGAT
conference, for instance, UST’s Hermel Pama gave a colorful account of namu in
Bicol, and when I shared this topic with my medical colleague Johanna Banzon,
she spoke of kayos in Iloilo.
Moreover, root crops can reduce our (over)dependence on
rice, increasing our food sovereignty and diversity, benefiting overall
nutrition, and helping indigenous and marginalized communities who are most
vulnerable to inflation and fluctuations in rice prices.
Finally, a revival of root crops can contribute to
building resilient communities, particularly in our age of climate crises. As
Development Academy of the Philippines’ Julieta Roa pointed out, also in UGAT,
root crops have always served as “survival foods”—but knowledge about them,
including how to remove toxicity, is fast fading away.
Of course, I am not saying we should abandon rice completely.
My modest appeal, echoing what others have said, is that we include root crops
as part of our diet and give them the attention, research, and investment they
deserve. Reclaiming our root crops will make us more rooted in our rich
biocultural heritage, healthy in our diets, empowered in our food choices, and
resilient as a nation.
glasco@inquirer.com.ph
What we don't know (about lakes)
could hurt us
As extreme weather increases,
scientists from 20 countries warn of risk to lakes and water quality
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
IMAGE: AS THE POWER OF EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS INCREASE
WITH CLIMATE CHANGE, AN INTERNATIONAL TEAM OF 39 SCIENTISTS WARN THAT LAKES
AROUND THE WORLD MAY DRAMATICALLY CHANGE, THREATENING ECOSYSTEM HEALTH
AND... view more
CREDIT: SAMUEL NANCHEN
As the power of extreme weather events
increase with climate change, a team of scientists warn that lakes around the
world may dramatically change, threatening ecosystem health and water quality.
And the international team
reports that our limited understanding of how lakes--especially algae at the
base of food webs--may respond to more-extreme storms represents a knowledge
gap that increases the risk.
The team of 39 scientists from 20
countries on four continents investigated what is currently known about how
lake ecosystems respond to extreme storm events. The scientists found they
cannot confidently predict how lakes will respond to the more frequent and
intense storms that are expected in a warming world.
"If extreme weather events
significantly change carbon, nutrient, or energy cycling in lakes, we better
figure it out quickly," said Jason Stockwell, an aquatic ecologist at the
University of Vermont who led the new research, "because lakes can flip,
like a lightbulb, from one healthy state to an unhealthy one--and it can be
hard or impossible to flip them back again."
The new study focused on
phytoplankton--microscopic plants commonly known as algae. "Phytoplankton
are of particular concern because they are the base of the food web," said
Stockwell, "and a critical driver of water quality."
The new study, "Storm
Impacts on Phytoplankton Community Dynamics in Lakes," was published in
the journal Global Change Biology on 5 March.
STORMS AHEAD
It is well known that extreme
weather events damage property, infrastructure, and the environment, including
freshwater resources that are critical to human health. However, lakes are
especially sensitive to storm events because they experience storms directly
and receive storm runoff from throughout their watersheds. Runoff includes
sediments, nutrients, microplastics, and much more.
"We have a good idea of how
lakes physically respond to storms: the water column mixes, water temperature
changes, and sediments can be churned up from the bottom or delivered by rivers
and streams to make the lake more turbid," Stockwell said. "But the
physical response of the lake is just a part of the story. The biological
impact of storms on phytoplankton and other plants and animals is fundamental
to how lakes behave--and, as our study reveals, poorly understood."
In a search of thousands of
scientific articles from around the world, the scientists found just 31 studies
on 18 lakes that connected storms to freshwater lake conditions, and then to
phytoplankton. Not only was the information sparse, but the few available findings
were inconsistent. It became clear that the scientific community has a poor
understanding of how phytoplankton respond to storms, or how their responses
may differ by storm types, across different lakes, or even at different times
of year.
NEW KNOWLEDGE NEEDED
The scientists call for a
collaborative, multi-disciplinary effort by modelers, limnologists, watershed
experts and other scientists, through research coordination networks--such as
the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON)--to develop and advance
a research framework of storm impacts on phytoplankton.
The team of scientists suggest
several research directions including integrating watershed and lake physical
models with biological models to better predict phytoplankton responses to
storm-induced changes to lake conditions. The scientists also recommend
continued and expanded long-term lake monitoring programs, coupled with
networks of electronic high-frequency sensors, to evaluate short-term changes,
emergent patterns, and long-term responses of lakes and water quality to storm
events.
Similar research is also required
for zooplankton, tiny grazers a little smaller than a rice grain that are
essential food for fish. The goal is to better understand the pathways by which
storms impact watershed-scale processes and plants and animals in lakes.
"We must quickly learn
more--so we can better respond to the very real and pressing threat of climate
change on lakes around the world," said Stockwell, director of UVM's
Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory. "Without healthy lakes, we are
sunk," he said.
Prices of rice surge as businesses struggle with supply issues
by Marie
Edinger
Friday, March
6th 2020
Signs
placed in the window at Fresno Community Market (FOX26)
FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) — In
response to fears Covid-19 could limit the supply of rice, people are flocking
to Asian markets to stock up.
That's causing some stores to
struggle to keep the product on the shelves, and leading others to hike the
prices way up.
Phonexay Keobandith says he
couldn't find rice anywhere in Fresno.
"The main thing we were
looking for was bags of rice. The aisle was completely empty."
25 pound bags of rice that used
to cost around $22 are now $35
50lb bags that used to cost about
$35 are now being sold for $71
100lb bags that used to be
$50-$60 are now going for $130
Koebandith says a lot of Asian
families in Fresno eat rice every day, and are going to be hurting if they have
to pay prices like that.
"That's not affordable at
all. If we really want it, we're going to end up paying the money for it, but
70 or 75 dollars for a 50 pound bag? That's not worth it at all."
Price Gouging in California is
illegal.
California
Attorney General warns about price gouging following Covid-19 emergency
declaration
Penal Code Section 396 says
businesses can't raise the price of consumer goods and services by more than
10% after an emergency declaration is made.
Governor Newsom declared a state
emergency yesterday.
But, the price gouging law also
says,
If the
seller can prove that the increased price is directly attributable to increases
in the cost of labor or materials needed to provide the good or service, the
seller may not be liable under the statute.
Adam Hauter, the owner of Fresno
Community Market, says he's able to prove that.
To keep his shelves stocked, he
had to pay a $2,200 "Urgent same-day delivery truck fee."
The
owner of Fresno Community Market shows off an invoice with a massive
"Urgent same-day delivery truck fee."
Normally he doesn't pay anything
for shipping.
"They want rice. I'm trying
to get it here for them. But then they complain about the price. Well, I'm
trying to get it here for them. They need to understand that. Other stores,
they're out, because they don't want to pay the high price to bring it
here."
Stores in San Jose are selling 50
pound bags for $70.
In Los Angeles, stores in Korea
Town are keeping prices the same, but limiting how much people can buy.
Asian
supermarkets in Korea Town, Los Angeles charged the same amount as always for
rice, but limited customers to one or two bags per person, depending on the
store.Photo credit: Andrew Gioia
At Vons in Fresno Thursday, rice
was on sale, but with a notice warning people about distribution issues.
Vons
Grocery Store warned customers it was having supply issues
At Walmart Thursday evening, the
store had no restrictions, but the shelves were pretty cleaned out.
Fresno City Counilmember Vong
Mouanoutoua told FOX26 News in a statement,
Many people
in our community want to be as prepared as possible. Rice is such a staple
food. It is eaten at every meal and served on every occasion. It is the primary
food eaten during times of sickness and recovery. It is a main dish at
celebrations. It goes with everything we eat. Maybe this will encourage us to
try rice grown in California and Japan or go and have basmati rice. Better than
that, it will be a healthy push to go and try other diverse foods in the Valley
like Indian, Mexican, American or Italian. We will survive. Our Valley is so
rich.
The Owner at Fresno Community
market feels the problem is twofold: yes, the distributors are having some
issues, but it does not help when consumers flock to clear out these shelves.
Asian
business sees customers rush in for rice amid COVID-19 outbreak
SAN
ANTONIO –
Some stores have placed limits on disinfecting products amid the COVID-19
coronavirus outbreak. However, one local Asian business is experiencing
customers rushing in for rice.
Sari
Sari on Wurzbach Road has seen its supply of rice leave store shelves rather
quickly.
Imelda
Roberts says she’s been working at the market for 13 years and has noticed her
customers seem to be stockpiling the rice. She said she hopes she can keep up
with demand.
“I was making an order to our wholesaler where
we get our stuff, and even they limit us. She actually just gave us half our
order,” Roberts said.
Roberts
said the restaurant side of the business has not been impacted, but she hopes
people will calm their concerns.
DA: Farmers’ loss from rice tariff law only P3.3B
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:08 AM March 06,
2020
URDANETA CITY—Agriculture Secretary William Dar on
Thursday said the revenue loss among rice farmers because of the rice
tariffication law was pegged at only P3.3 billion, contrary to the P68 billion
claim by the Federation of Free Farmers.
Dar said the government collected P12.3 billion worth of
tariffs last year, a portion of which would be used to finance Department of
Agriculture programs for rice farmers, such as the rice competitiveness
enhancement fund.—Yolanda Sotelo
Read more: https://business.inquirer.net/291940/da-farmers-loss-from-rice-tariff-law-only-p3-3b#ixzz6FzlHUfd8
Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook
|
Trade
Talks Scheduled with Ecuador
By Sarah Moran
ARLINGTON,
VA -- As negotiations with the UK and Japan ramp up, another country on the
radar for trade talks with the U.S. is Ecuador, where rice is a staple.
Discussions are primarily aimed at encouraging Ecuador's move away from
socialism and expanding commercial ties.
In Ecuador, U.S. rice is subject to a 68 percent tariff for milled and brown rice, and 20 percent for paddy rice. The country imports 100,000 MT and grows 870,000 MT milled basis; they import on average 200 MT of U.S. rice annually. "Ecuador consumes nearly 985,000 metric tons per year, which works out to be about 130 pounds per person - that's five times more than Americans eat, so we're talking about a lot of rice," said Asiha Grigsby, USA Rice manager of promotions in the western hemisphere. "A combination of logistics and tariffs make it difficult for the U.S. to be a cost-effective supplier to Ecuador, but if tariffs can be addressed in these trade talks, we'd certainly increase our ability to be competitive there." Rice imports in Ecuador are politically sensitive, as they are in many countries. The Ecuadorian government has promoted rice self-sufficiency by setting a minimum price for domestic rice at the farm-gate level, higher than the world market, maintaining the Andean Price Band System, and further trying to limit imports using presidential decrees. The Andean Price Band System sets floor and ceiling prices and is recalculated twice each month. Andean community members (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia) are assessed a zero-tariff and are not subject to the Andean Price Band System. A ministerial decree is necessary however before an import permit is issued. Other Latin American countries have been granted ad valorem tariff preferences under the Latin America Integration Association (ALADI) that are well below what the U.S. pays, but they are still assessed the Andean Price Band System variable levy. "Peru and Colombia, neighboring countries to Ecuador, have existing free trade agreements with the U.S. which should generate some pressure to bring Ecuador to the negotiating table," said Grigsby. "A delegation from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is scheduled to travel to Ecuador next month to begin talks." |
|
How you should stock your pantry for a coronavirus quarantine,
according to expert cooks
March 5, 2020, 2:29PM
For more stories about the coronavirus,
go here.
Edward
Lee is not prepared for a coronavirus lockdown. His pantry is not stocked. He
shops often, buying only what he needs and what will fit in his small kitchen.
"I'm a chef, so I rarely cook at home from scratch," he said with a
shrug. "My fridge is filled with leftovers from the restaurant. My whole
life is eating leftovers."
In other
words, he's like a lot of people.
For
years, nutritionists and cookbook writers have advised Americans to keep a
stocked pantry, and to cook and eat together. It's better for our health. It's
better for our relationships. (There are even apps that will help you do a lot
of the planning.) And yet, we've stubbornly refused. Research firm NPD reported
in 2017 that cold cereal, toaster pastries, yogurt and tap water are among the
most popular "meals" prepared at home. Food Genius, a food-data firm
now owned by U.S. Foods, estimates that as many as 80% of Americans don't make
plans for dinner until at least 4 p.m. the same day.
Now
comes the threat of the coronavirus, which could mean that, at least
temporarily, we stock up and limit trips to the grocery store, stop going to
restaurants and spurn delivery drivers.
In other
words, Americans might finally have to plan and cook.
No one
knows where the virus might bloom — or how long restrictions might last. What
is clear is that this will be different from the usual "stock up on bread
and milk" emergencies: Snowstorms generally only trap people in the house
for a few days, whereas lockdowns in China have lasted weeks, stressing even
the most seasoned cooks. On the plus side, it's unlikely that homes will lose
power as they might after a natural disaster.
How do
you plan to potentially cook three meals a day for weeks at a time with limited
access to the outside world? And given our high expectations about what we eat
— sushi one night and pizza the next — is it possible to keep it interesting?
We asked some of the country's best-known cooks for tips and inspiration.
- - -
Padma
Lakshmi
Author,
host of Bravo's "Top Chef"
"The
first thing I would do, right now, before there is a panic, is start
cooking," Lakshmi said. "Pick a Saturday or Sunday and involve the
whole family in making huge batches of different dishes: turkey chili or green
chili with white beans, things that are stew-y and freeze well. Then pack them
in quart containers so you can take out just what you need."
This
plan has two benefits. It lessens anxiety — yes, you'll have food to eat! — but
it also allows you to cook with what's fresh. You're not stocking up on fresh
fruits and vegetables and hoping they don't rot.
And
since fresh foods do go off, Lakshmi also recommends stocking up on frozen
vegetables, which "have no less nutrition than fresh ones do," and
plenty of root vegetables that also store well — even if you don't have a big
freezer: "Turnips are delicious cooked in broth with a little bit of soy
sauce, a dash of hoisin sauce and Chinese five spice."
Finally,
bulk up your condiment supply with shelf-stable sauces and concentrates that
can create variety. One of Lakshmi's go-to pantry meals is what she calls
"paste pasta," noodles tossed in a mix of sun-dried tomato paste,
anchovy paste and green-olive paste, olive oil and crushed red pepper. Another
is kitchari, a traditional Indian rice and lentil porridge she makes for her
family that can be filled with vegetables — or not.
Hugo
Ortega
Chef-owner
of Backstreet Cafe and four other Houston restaurants
Ortega
grew up in the mountains of Oaxaca, so among his go-tos are sopecitos, little
corn cups that can be filled with stewed vegetables, meat, cheese, anything
really. You start with masa harina (ground, nixtamalized corn flour) and mix it
with water, then form it into little balls and stretch it in the palm of your
hands. All that's left is to cook it lightly in a cast iron pan. "Masa is
my equivalent of pasta," Ortega said. "You can put almost anything on
it and it will give you plenty of energy for the day."
If
you're really worried about the coronavirus, you can buy 10-pound (or larger)
sacks of masa at club stores or Latin markets. Ortega likes blue-corn masa,
which is often of higher quality. And as long as you're stocking up, Ortega
recommends canned cherry tomatoes, "which have a lot more flavor"
than the usual plum variety.
Though
it may not help in the short term, Ortega also hopes the scare will encourage
people to cultivate some fresh food themselves: "Put rosemary in a pot in
the window or a tomato plant out the back door." After all, Americans have
done it before. During World War II, there were 18 million so-called Victory
Gardens.
- - -
Melissa
Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer
Authors,
owners of Canal House Station restaurant in Milford, New Jersey
In the
culinary world, Hamilton and Hirsheimer are goddesses of simple food, the kind
of people who just happen to have a pie coming out the oven when you stop by
without advance notice. So no surprise that cooking from a well-stocked pantry
is what they do. Never are they without lots of good olive oil and canned tuna
— which can be made into a stellar and satisfying pasta sauce with the addition
of parsley and lemon — or eggs because, says Hirsheimer, "omelets are
fantastic and can be made with whatever you have kicking around in the
fridge."
Like
Lakshmi, Hamilton and Hirsheimer are also big advocates of frozen vegetables,
especially peas. They dedicated a whole chapter to them in the sixth volume of
their Canal House Cooking series. "You can make a great soup with canned
or boxed chicken broth and a few bags of frozen peas," Hirsheimer says.
- - -
Nina
Compton
Chef-owner
of Compère Lapin and Bywater American Bistro, New Orleans
"The
busier I get, the simpler I keep it at home," Compton said. That means a
lot of snacks, including pickles, nuts, charcuterie and cheese — plus a few
Totino's Supreme frozen pizzas. The one meal she cooks regularly out of her
pantry: pasta "cacio e pepe," with cheese and black pepper. "The
key is adding the right amount of pasta water because the starchy water makes
the sauce really creamy." Compton makes the pasta from scratch once a month,
and then pulls it out of the freezer, but any dried pasta will do.
Chili
and risottos are also go-tos. For risotto, she uses dried mushrooms, which can
live in the pantry indefinitely and are reconstituted to make the stock the
rice cooks in. (Frozen peas, plus plenty of cheese and butter, complete the
dish.) Her chili, usually vegetarian, features dried beans and spices that she
has on hand, including lots of smoked paprika, and she servers it with Cool
Ranch Doritos.
Living
in New Orleans, Compton has become a fan of Zatarain's jambalaya seasoning mix.
She adds it to rice, which she tops with fresh avocado. She also uses the
seasoning to make a broth to cook mixed frozen vegetables.
- - -
Edward
Lee
Author,
chef-owner of 610 Magnolia and two other restaurants in Louisville, Kentucky,
and Succotash in Washington, D.C.
Lee may
not regularly cook at home, but when pressed he showed off his chef bona fides
by cooking up something from next to nothing. In less than 15 minutes, he
explained in a phone interview, he coaxed a tantalizing bowl of noodles from a
packet of instant ramen, some frozen green beans, a dash of curry powder and a
slice of processed American cheese. "The cheese adds a little creaminess
and tang," he said.
And a
dash of nostalgia. During and after the Korean War, Lee says, Koreans learned
about many nonperishable American foods such as Spam, hot dogs and processed
cheese through U.S. military pantries and adopted them as a part of their
staple diet, though they used them in their own ways. "Melted cheese on
ramen is the best. It's comfort food."
And
isn't that what we really need right now?
- - -
Padma
Lakshmi's Kitchari
Active:
35 minutes | Total: 55 minutes
4 to 6
servings
"Top
Chef" host Padma Lakshmi loves to serve her family and friends kitchari, a
much-loved Indian food that she describes it as a savory rice-and-lentil
porridge.
Lakshmi
makes the dish a bit healthier by tweaking the traditional recipe. For example,
the dish usually is made with two cups of rice to one cup of lentils, but
Lakshmi reverses that to have the lentils be the main ingredient. The legumes
are boiled with a bay leaf and a bit of salt. When she makes the dish for
family and friends, she sautes vegetables and adds them to the porridge, which
makes it healthier still. Here, the kitchari is made with more pantry-friendly
ingredients. It gets its spice from black mustard seeds and dried red chile
peppers.
Ingredients
1 cup (7
ounces) yellow or green lentils
1/2 cup
(6 1/2 ounces) basmati rice
1 bay
leaf
1
teaspoon kosher salt, or more to taste
1/2 cup
diced carrots (about 1 large)
2
tablespoons canola oil
2 to 3
dried red chiles, or more to taste
3/4
teaspoon black mustard seeds
1/2
teaspoon ground cumin
1/2
teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1
tablespoon unsalted butter or ghee (optional)
Steps
Rinse
the lentils and rice until the water runs clear. In a large stockpot, add the
lentils, rice and bay leaf and enough cold water to cover the ingredients by
about 3 inches. Stir in enough salt so that the water tastes lightly salty.
Set the
pot over medium-high heat and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to
medium and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking on the
bottom, about 20 minutes. Stir in the carrots and cook, stirring a few times,
until the rice is tender and the porridge is the consistency of oatmeal, about
10 minutes. If any foam forms during cooking, skim it off If the mixture seems
too dry during cooking, add water, a little at a time, as needed.
When the
rice is just about cooked, in a shallow pan over medium high heat, heat the
canola oil until shimmering. Add the chiles, mustard seeds, cumin and pepper
and cook, stirring, until the mustard seeds begin to pop, about 3 minutes. Add
the oil and spice mixture (called chhonk) to the porridge. Stir in the butter
or ghee, if using.
Remove
from the heat, divide among bowls and serve.
Nutrition
(based on 6 servings) | Calories: 270; Total Fat: 6 g; Saturated Fat: 0 g;
Cholesterol: 0 mg; Sodium: 200 mg; Carbohydrates: 45 g; Dietary Fiber: 6 g;
Sugars: 1 g; Protein: 10 g.
(Adapted
from "Top Chef" host Padma Lakshmi.)
- - -
Pantry
Ramen
15
minutes
1 to 2
servings
A
reliable pantry staple, packaged instant ramen, enjoys a cult status with many,
from cash-strapped college students to gourmet chefs. The slice of processed
American cheese adds comforting, savory creaminess and is a nod to the days
following the Korean War when iconic American foods flooded South Korea.
Ingredients
1 cup
water
3/4 cup
coconut milk
One
(3-ounce) packet instant ramen noodles, such as Maruchan Ramen Noodle Soup
1/4 cup
frozen green beans
1
tablespoon creamy peanut butter (optional)
1/2
teaspoon curry powder, plus more for garnish
1 slice
American cheese, such as Kraft
Steps
Add one
cup of water to a medium pot and bring to a boil. Add the coconut milk,
noodles, green beans and peanut butter, if using, and cook, stirring now and
then, for about 3 minutes.
Remove
from the heat and add the curry powder and half of the spice mix from the ramen
packet and stir until fully dissolved, about 1 minute. (Discard the remaining
spice mix.)
Transfer
the ramen and its broth to a large bowl and place the cheese on top. Dust with
more curry powder and serve.
Ingredients
are too variable for a meaningful nutritional analysis.
(Adapted
from chef Edward Lee.)
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Trading resumes in Muse, but demand from Thailand yet to
pick up
06 MAR 2020
Trade in Muse, the Myanmar town bordering China, has picked up
again after grinding to a halt in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak, U Min
Thein, vice chair of Muse rice merchants association told The Myanmar Times.
He said trade activities are now running at 80 percent of their
usual capacity, and should return to normal by Thingyan next month, if
things continue at the current pace. China is now buying 30,000 bags of
rice a day, with an average of 40 trucks crossing the border, he said.
Trade at Muse came to a standstill during Chinese New Year in
January, leading to a glut of commodities such as sugar, a variety of melons
and rice in Myanmar and a decline in trade totaling US$209 million
compared to the same period last year, said Minister of Commerce U Than Myint.
Trading in Muse resumed in mid February.
Demand at the Myanmar-Thai border has yet to pick up though. As
a result of the virus, the Thais have suspended imports of fishery and marine
products such as mantis shrimp, squid and fish farmed or caught in Myanmar.
U Than Lwin Oo, a resident of Kyaing Mei Taung village in
Bokepyin township, Tanintharyi Region, said prices for large mantis shrimp have
declined by more than 75pc to K3,000 each due to the lack of buyers.
The local fisheries trade has long been the bread and butter for
residents in Tanintharyi. The products are exported to Thailand, which
re-exports the goods to China.
As a result, of the decline in trade, most of marine products
are now being sold locally in Myeik and other local villages for a fraction of
the cost.
“Right now, we have a huge supply of seafood, including the
expensive and good quality seafood which used to be rare as these would be
snapped by Thailand or China. We can get all this for cheap now,” said Daw Su
Su Hlaing, a local from Kyaing Mei Taung village in Myeik. – Translated
Ebro Foods
boosts pasta and rice output to meet coronavirus-driven demand
MADRID, March
6 (Reuters) - Spain's Ebro Foods has ramped up production of pasta and rice in
Western Europe and the United States in the past couple of weeks to meet
growing demand by consumers worried by the coronavirus crisis, a company
spokeswoman said on Friday.
Consumers
around the world have been stockpiling non-perishable food and household items
as the coronavirus spreads on fears they may end up in quarantine at home.
"To
follow the peak in demand, we have increased our overall production in Italy,
France, United States, Germany, Britain and Spain by 15% to 25%," the
spokeswoman said.
Ebro Foods
owns brands such as Garofalo in Italy, Panzani in France and Minute Rice in the
United States.
It has not had
trouble sourcing raw materials on the market or noticed price volatility, the
spokeswoman said, adding: "We have our own stocks of raw materials and
future contracts."
The company
expects the market will adjust at some point as fears ease.
With sales
worth 2.81 billion euros ($3.19 billion) in 2019, Ebro Foods says it is the
world's second-largest rice seller and the world's second-largest dry and fresh
pasta maker.
The company
invested 149 million euros in 2019 to increase capacity on both sides of the
Atlantic. ($1 = 0.8814 euros) (Reporting by Inti Landauro Editing by Ingrid
Melander and Nick Macfie)
RPT-ASIA
RICE-DROUGHT-HIT THAILAND'S RATES SOAR TO 6-1/2 YR PEAK ON SUPPLY DEARTH
3/5/2020
(Repeats with no change to text)
* Vietnam rates rise to
$390-$400/tonne this week from $365-$375
* More orders coming from Malaysia,
Cuba, Africa-Vietnamese trader
* Indian rupee falls to lowest in
16 months
* Bangladesh sets 'Boro' production
target of 20 mln tonnes
By Sumita Layek
BENGALURU, March 5 (Reuters) - A
supply crunch in drought stricken Thailand pushed rice export prices to their
highest in 6-1/2 years this week, while Vietnamese rates bounced back to a more
than one-year high on firm demand.
Thailand's benchmark 5% broken rice
<RI-THBKN5-P1> prices jumped to $460-$467 per tonne on Thursday, their
highest since August 2013, from $430-$452 last week.
"Most of the demand is from
domestic buyers who are stocking up rice amid fears of shortages," a
Bangkok-based trader said.
The protracted drought in many rice
producing areas caused market concerns over possible supply shortages and is
the main reason for the price hike as overseas demand remained flat, traders
said.
The dry season, which usually
starts in November and lasts until April, could persist into June, the Thai
government said.
In Vietnam, rates for 5% broken
rice <RI-VNBKN5-P1> rose to $390-$400 on Thursday, their highest since
December 2018, versus $365-$375 a week earlier on strong demand.
"The Philippines remains the
largest buyer, and we have seen more orders coming in from Malaysia, Cuba and
Africa," a trader based in Ho Chi Minh City said.
Vietnam's rice exports in the first
two months of this year likely rose 11.5% from a year earlier to 811,000
tonnes, the government's General Statistics Office said on Saturday.
"The strong demand has
outpaced the rise in supplies as local farmers are still harvesting rice from
the winter-spring crop," another trader in the city said, adding that
farmers have harvested 60%-70% of the crop.
Meanwhile, in top exporter India,
rice export prices extended losses due to weak demand and as rupee fell to the
lowest level in 16 months.
India's 5% broken parboiled variety
rates <RI-INBKN5-P1> inched lower to $367-$371 per tonne this week, from
last week's $369-$373.
"Weak rupee is allowing us to
lower prices in dollar terms, but still demand is not picking up," said an
exporter based at Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
Weak rupee increases exporters
margin from the overseas sale.
Neighbouring Bangladesh has set a
production target of 20 million tonnes for summer variety rice crop
"Boro", for the current year, a senior agriculture ministry official
said.
Boro contributes more than half
Bangladesh's typical annual rice output of around 35 million tonnes.
In 2019, the country produced a
record 20.4 million tonnes of Boro, up from 19.6 million tonnes the previous
year, the agriculture ministry says. (Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai,
Ruma Paul in Dhaka, Khanh Vu in Hanoi and Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok; editing
by David Evans)
© Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020.
Click For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
Major rice research platform to be
built in northeast China
XINHUA – A major rice research platform
will be built in northeast China with a total investment of about 90 million
yuan (about $13 million) to promote the upgrading of the rice industry in the
northern part of the country.
The construction of the northern
rice research centre of the China National Rice Research Institute of the
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has recently been approved by the
National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture and
Rural Affairs.
The centre will be built in
Baoqing County, Shuangyashan city, Heilongjiang province. As a national science
and technology innovation platform, It is expected to significantly improve the
contribution of science and technology in the rice industry in northern China,
and promote the development of a high-quality rice industry.
The centre will focus on rice
resources innovation, new variety selection, ecological research, cultivation
technology innovation and soil fertilisation and remediation research.
Two-month rice
exports soar despite Covid-19 epidemic
|
|
Thursday, 2020-03-05
17:55:18
|
|
|
 Vietnam is expected to export 6.7 million tonnes of rice in 2020. (Illustrative image) |
|
NDO –Vietnam has exported approximately 890,000 tonnes of rice
worth US$420 million in the first two months of 2020, an increase of 27% in
terms of volume and 32% in terms of value compared to the same period in
2019. |
|
Notably, the price of Vietnamese 5% broken rice has increased to
US$380 per tonne, a record high since December 2018. While exports of a number of agricultural products have faced difficulties due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, Vietnamese rice exports have seen sharp increases in both quantity and value, according to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). Deputy Director of the MARD’s Department of Crop Production Le Thanh Tung said that the rice export rise was due to timely supply coinciding with increasing demand in many markets, pushing up domestic prices of rice. According to agricultural expert Vo Tong Xuan, Thailand, the second largest rice exporter in the world is suffering big losses due to saline drought. Rice production in Thailand has decreased by nearly two million tonnes. Vietnam has also been affected by saline drought but only a small area of about 28,000ha. Thus, Vietnam remains a plentiful supplier of rice. In addition, the Philippines and Indonesia are facing rice shortages and have had to import a huge volume from Vietnam. The demand for rice reserve is increasing in many countries, particularly China, creating opportunities for Vietnam to boost rice exports, Xuan noted. Vietnam is expected to export 6.7 million tonnes of rice in 2020 and this goal is believed to be reachable, Tung said. |
Vietnam to achieve
rice export target this year
Vietnam expects to achieve its export target of 6.7 million
tonnes of rice this year due to high global demand, according to an official.
Friday, March 06, 2020 18:16
Vietnam targets to export 6.7 million tonnes of
rice this year. (Photo: chinhphu.vn)
Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam expects to achieve its export target of 6.7
million tonnes of rice this year due to high global demand, according
to an official.The country could reach the goal and produce enough rice for domestic demand, said Le Thanh Tung, deputy head of the Department of Plant Cultivation under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
Due to the spread of the novel coronavirus around the world, demand for rice reserves in many countries, especially China, will increase. Vietnam’s traditional rice export markets, such as the Philippines and Indonesia, lack rice and they continue to import huge volumes from Vietnam. Therefore, Vietnam has many opportunities to boost rice exports, Tung said.
Tung said the winter-spring rice crop will ensure enough output for exports and domestic consumption.
Thailand – the second-largest rice exporter in the world – has suffered great losses in rice output from severe drought and saltwater intrusion with a reduction of about two million tonnes of rice.
In the winter-spring crop 2019-20, Vietnam has had only about 28,000ha suffer from severe drought and saltwater intrusion, accounting for a small part of a total 1.65 million ha cultivating rice in the southeast region and the Mekong Delta. Therefore, Vietnam will have an oversupply of rice to add to inventories from the last two crops.
In addition, the State Bank of Vietnam has asked banks to enhance lending for rice production and consumption in the Mekong Delta. Banks there have provided loans in terms of 3-6 months with an annual interest rate of 6 percent. That has provided a lot of support for firms and farmers in the industry.
Vietnam's rice value has increased on the world market because a number of businesses have built value chains for rice, though domestic rice is still lower quality.
Experts say that to achieve sustainable export growth, the rice production industry must further develop the value chain.
Pham Thai Binh, General Director of Trung An High-tech Agriculture Joint Stock Company, said if there is investment in the value chain and farmers work with businesses, stable production and consumption will follow.
According to the MARD, in the first two months this year, many key agricultural products, such as pangasius (tra fish), cashew nut, rubber and vegetables had strong reductions in export value, but rice exports gained year on year growth of 27 percent in volume to 890,000 tonnes and 32.6 percent in export value to 420 million USD, chinhphu.vn reported.
Increasing rice demand in many markets has increased Vietnamese rice exports from early this year, leading to a surge of rice prices in the domestic market, Tung said.
During the first two months, the price of rice purchased at enterprises’ warehouses was 5,400-6,400 VND per kilo, 1,000 VND more than rice purchased at fields.
In the first two months this year, the price of 5 percent broken rice for export on the domestic market increased to 380 USD per tonne, a high since December 2018./.
Vietnam’s Mekong Delta Declares
Emergency on Devastating Drought
By
March 6, 2020, 4:16 PM
GMT+5
Vietnam’s prolonged drought,
coupled with an extensive buildup of salinity, have driven five provinces in
the country’s rice bowl to declare a state of emergency.
“This year’s drought and salinity
have been way more devastating than what we saw four years ago,” said Nguyen
Thien Phap, head of the water resources department in Tien Giang, one of the
provinces that announced the emergency in the Mekong Delta.
The entire area of fruit trees in
Tien Giang province, or about 80,000 hectares (310 square miles), are at risk,
while 24,000 hectares of rice fields will give below-normal yields, said Phap,
who added that water usage upstream on the Mekong by nations including China,
Laos and Thailand increased the dryness.
The Mekong Delta, which produces
more than half the country’s rice, has so far seen a total of 33,000 hectares
of rice fields damaged and nearly 70,000 households suffer from lack of water,
Vietnam National Television reported Friday, citing latest data from the
country’s department of water resources.
Salinity of four grams a liter will
continue to spread in the Delta, affecting as much as 110 kilometers in some
major estuaries this month, according to a report by the Southern Institute of
Water Resources Research in Ho Chi Minh City. That’s three to five kilometers
more than in the same period in 2016.
Another severe spell of salinity is
expected in the short term, while water flows from the Mekong River into the
region this month remain very low, estimated at 20% less than the same period
in 2016, according to Vietnam’s National Center for Hydro-Meteorological
Forecasting.
Lack of rain combined with growing
water consumption on river tributaries, as well as increased water storage in
dams, are likely to spur drought and make saline intrusion more severe and
longer-lasting, Hoang Phuc Lam, the center’s deputy director, said in a report.
The government estimates drought and salinity will affect 362,000
hectares of rice and 136,000 hectares of fruit trees in the Delta this year,
while more than 120,000 households will experience a water shortage. As of
March, salinity had
hit about half the districts in 10 of the 12 provinces and one city in the
region.
The persistent drought in the
Delta in 2016 caused losses worth 8.9 trillion dong ($384 million) with
250,000 hectares of rice, 130,000 hectares of crops and 30,000 hectares of
fruit trees destroyed, according to local news website VnExpress. It was
regarded as the worst drought in the region of more than 17 million people in
data going back to 1926.
While the Delta is a key
rice-growing area, the crop is grown in almost all of Vietnam, which is the
world’s third-largest exporter, behind India and Thailand.
China’s Green Goals Overtaken by
Worries Over Virus-Hit Economy
Bloomberg News
March 5, 2020, 2:00 AM
GMT+5
With global climate stress growing
ever more apparent, the world’s biggest polluter is setting aside its lofty
environmental ambitions as it confronts an unprecedented slowdown in growth.
China, which spews more carbon into
the atmosphere than the U.S. and European Union combined, is being forced to
give greater priority an economy that had wilted during the trade war with
Washington and is now being flattened by the coronavirus epidemic.
Increasing economic headwinds are prompting Beijing to roll back restrictions
on industrial pollution, slow its transition away from coal and
slash subsidies for cleaner energy and transportation. A
carbon market slated for this year may not live up to its
billing, and there are signs that the government is unwilling to set a higher
bar this year for its climate goals.
Climate Impact
China's emissions have been creeping up after falling for 3 years
It doesn’t mean China is giving up
its long-term green ambitions, and one silver lining to a flagging economy is
fewer emissions in any case. The nation is expected to remain as the largest
investor in renewable energy. But the deceleration will undermine Beijing’s
opportunity to exert influence internationally after the U.S. exited the Paris
climate accord, underscoring the priority it places on the economic engine that
has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty and solidified the legitimacy of
the ruling Communist Party.
“In China, there’s a belief that
problems can only be solved in the process of economic development,” said Ma
Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs in Beijing.
“Just like a moving bicycle, it runs more smoothly when it is moving at a high
speed. But when it slows down, setbacks tend to occur.”
Hard Brake
China’s National Development and
Reform Commission did not respond to faxed questions. A fax to the Ministry of
Ecology and Environment’s listed number would not go through, and no one
answered calls to the ministry’s listed phone number.
China’s economy has been slowing since early 2018, when U.S.
President Donald Trump began a tariff war between the world’s two biggest
economies. Efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus from its epicenter
in Hubei have put a hard brake on growth. Economists believe gross domestic
product could contract in the
first three months of the year from the prior quarter, leaving full-year growth
well below the politically important threshold of 6%.
With millions of firms teetering, Beijing is enacting a series
of stimulus measures to
get the citizenry back to work, and avoid the widespread unemployment that
could lead to unrest and jeopardize President Xi Jinping’s goal of doubling
per-capita GDP over the decade that ends in December.
Heavy air pollution in Harbin, Jan. 2019.
Photographer: Tao Zhang/Getty Images
The industry-friendly measures
threaten to unravel, at least temporarily, some of Xi’s modest green gains. The
super-charged growth of the 2000s came with an unhealthy dose of environmental
degradation and left China as the world’s biggest polluter. When Xi came to
power in 2013, he made building an “ecological civilization” a priority and
began a series of radical measures to improve air quality and cut emissions.
China’s carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels more than
doubled in the 2000s, the biggest jump of any country, according to BP Plc.
Xi’s first three years in charge actually saw emissions fall, before they
started creeping higher again. The short-term need for stimulus, including a
big fiscal jolt to infrastructure spending, means pollution controls are likely
to take a back seat to
shoring up the economy in the second half of the year.
“I don’t think China will go back down the old road of development
with huge pollution, but it’s likely the government might adjust its priorities
at a time like this” said Qian Guoqiang, a strategy director at SinoCarbon Innovation
& Investment Co. in Beijing.
China’s initial response to the outbreak, including quarantining
millions of families, shutting down transportation and idling factories, has
already reduced carbon dioxide emissions by at least 100 million tons,
more Greece spews out in an entire year. Depending on how quickly activity
ramps back up and how the government decides to stimulate the economy,
emissions growth in the second half of the year could outweigh the
short-term reduction.
Industrial Emissions
Among the first casualties of Beijing’s refocus on growth were
measures to reduce pollution from heavy industry, put in place to bring blue
skies to smoggy cities, particularly the capital. In the winter of 2018, the
environment ministry relaxed those rules, adopting a more flexible program for
output curbs and giving special treatment to sectors including steel. This past
winter, the government again eased its clean
air targets.
Smog Situation
Beijing pollution levels recently rose to the worst in 3 years
Source: U.S. State Department
The step-back from more stringent
targets “indicates the enhanced policy priority of growth support relative to
air pollution control, in the short term at least,” analysts with Everbright
Sun Hung Kai Co. said in a report after the initial relaxation.
Coal Transition
In another effort to clear the
nation’s skies, the government in 2017 began an aggressive campaign to make homes
and factories switch from burning coal to cleaner natural gas. While successful
in helping rein in smog, the program also resulted in heating fuel shortages in
the middle of winter, and the following year it was eased to allow for a larger
role for coal.
Gas Gloom
China gas demand growth slowed as switching from coal eased
Source: National Development and Reform Commission
The program may face even further
cutbacks after the coronavirus outbreak, as the government could halt spending
that gives rural customers an incentive to use gas, according to Daiwa Capital
Markets analyst Dennis Ip. “We believe China’s economy would be further
dampened and hence the three-year rural gas subsidy may not be extended in the
coming winter,” he said in a note in early February.
The China Electricity Council is also backing efforts to
rely more on the cheaper fuel, recommending that the nation increase its total
coal-fired power capacity to a maximum of 1,300 gigawatts from its current cap
of 1,100.
A man catches fish with a net in the Huangpu river across the Wujing
Coal-Electricity Power Station in Shanghai, 2017.
Photographer: Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images
The sum of China’s efforts to wean
itself off the dirtiest fossil fuel: coal is shrinking as a proportion of the
energy mix, but overall consumption continues to rise.
Subsidy Slashing
China has also cut the financial support that made it the world’s
biggest market for renewable energy and electric vehicles, a decision that’s
slowing the adoption of cleaner modes of power generation and transport. EV
sales have fallen for seven straight months after the government slashed subsidies by
two-thirds last year.
Slumping Sales
Electric vehicle sales in China fell for a 7th straight month in
January
Source: China Passenger Car Association
About 70% of China’s operating wind and solar plants were built in
the last five years, driven by high subsidies. Those are now being phased
out. Solar support is
shrinking and wind power
payments are expected to cease at the end of next year. The government’s stated
reason is to ensure that green energy is sustainable, and competitive with
fossils fuels.
But economic pressures are also a
catalyst, said BOCOM International Holdings Co. analyst Louis Sun, as China
doesn’t want to raise the subsidy surcharge it slaps on electricity bills at
the same time as it’s promoting cheaper electricity to help its embattled
companies.
Still, as renewable power firms join the ranks of the beleaguered,
the fight against coronavirus could actually forestall the
assault on subsidies, as the industry lobbies the government for extensions to
compensate for losses and
installation delays.
A medical staff sprays disinfectant on a man outside a hospital in
Wuhan, Feb. 2019.
Photographer: AFP via Getty Images
Carbon Market
Economic headwinds and the
coronavirus response could make the plan to establish a national carbon market
this year “politically difficult,” according to Fitch Solutions.
It would be the world’s largest, covering more than 3 billion tons of CO2 a year, using market forces
to incentivize investment in emissions reductions and offsets. But that would be
to the detriment of coal, the most carbon-intensive fuel, on which China relies
for most of its electricity and to keep vast numbers of people employed.
Carbon Colossus
China now produces more carbon dioxide than the U.S. and Europe
Source: BP Plc
Note: Measures carbon dioxide emissions from burning fuel
Logistics could also slow
development, according to SinoCarbon’s Qian. The national market will combine
seven regional pilots, including one in Hubei, which has effectively been
quarantined for many weeks. And the Hubei pilot is supposed to handle
participant registration for the entire nation.
Future Plans
At the last count, China was on track to reach or exceed its 2030
emissions targets under the 2015 Paris agreement. But it’s yet to give an
update on progress; nor has it established the more aggressive goals required
before this year’s climate conference in Glasgow in November.
Coronavirus and a severely weakened economy “make the call for enhancing
China’s climate targets tougher than before,” said Li Shuo, a policy adviser
for Greenpeace China.
Beijing is in the process of compiling its 14th five-year plan,
which will cover development from 2021 to 2025. The 13th plan set ambitious
targets to revamp the country’s energy mix, and it’s likely to hit most of them.
But for the next five years, analysts are less optimistic that the
government will aim as high again. Premier Li Keqiang in November cited shoring up the economy as one of the government’s
major goals, and that was before the current health crisis. Beijing is instead
likely to adopt a more flexible approach and avoid hard targets that could put
it in a bind, said Michal Meidan, China director for the Oxford Institute for
Energy Studies.
“That doesn’t mean that China
doesn’t care about the environment anymore,” she said. “It just needs to
prioritize growth in the near term.”
— With assistance by Dan Murtaugh, Feifei Shen,
and Jing Yang
Việt Nam to achieve rice
export target this year: insider
Update: March,
06/2020 - 07:43
Việt Nam targets to export 6.7
million tonnes of rice this year. Photo chinhphu.vn
HÀ NỘI
Việt Nam is expected to achieve its export target of 6.7 million tonnes of
rice this year due to high global demand, according to an official.The country could reach the goal and produce enough rice for domestic demand, said Lê Thanh Tùng, deputy head of the Department of Plant Cultivation under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
Due to the spread of the novel coronavirus around the world, demand for rice reserves in many countries, especially China, will increase. Việt Nam’s traditional rice export markets, such as the Philippines and Indonesia, lack rice and they continue to import huge volumes from Việt Nam. Therefore, Việt Nam has many opportunities to boost rice exports, Tùng said.
Tùng said the winter-spring rice crop will ensure enough output for exports and domestic consumption.
Thailand – the second-largest rice exporter in the world – has suffered great losses in rice output from severe drought and saltwater intrusion with a reduction of about two million tonnes of rice.
In the winter-spring crop 2019-20, Việt Nam has had only about 28,000ha suffer from severe drought and saltwater intrusion, accounting for a small part of a total 1.65 million ha cultivating rice in the southeast region and the Mekong Delta. Therefore, Việt Nam will have an oversupply of rice to add to inventories from the last two crops.
In addition, the State Bank of Việt Nam has asked banks to enhance lending for rice production and consumption in the Mekong Delta. Banks there have provided loans in terms of 3-6 months with an annual interest rate of 6 per cent. That has provided a lot of support for firms and farmers in the industry.
Việt Nam's rice value has increased on the world market because a number of businesses have built value chains for rice, though domestic rice is still lower quality.
Experts say that to achieve sustainable export growth, the rice production industry must further develop the value chain.
Phạm Thái Bình, General Director of Trung An High-tech Agriculture Joint Stock Company, said if there is investment in the value chain and farmers work with businesses, stable production and consumption will follow.
According to the MARD, in the first two months this year, many key agricultural products, such as pangasius (tra fish), cashew nut, rubber and vegetables had strong reductions in export value, but rice exports gained year on year growth of 27 per cent in volume to 890,000 tonnes and 32.6 per cent in export value to $420 million, chinhphu.vn reported.
Increasing rice demand in many markets has increased Vietnamese rice exports from early this year, leading to a surge of rice prices in the domestic market, Tùng said.
During the first two months, the price of rice purchased at enterprises’ warehouses was VNĐ5,400-6,400 per kilo, VNĐ1,000 more than rice purchased at fields.
In the first two months this year, the price of 5 per cent broken rice for export on the domestic market increased to $380 per tonne, a high since December 2018. VNS
STAR/ File
Philippines to keep rice imports at
1.6 million MT
Louise Maureen
Simeon (The Philippine Star
) - March 7, 2020 - 12:00am
URDANETA,
Pangasinan, Philippines – The Philippines plans to keep rice imports at a
minimum this year, just enough to meet the shortage in local production, even
with a liberalized rice regime already in place.
During
the celebration last week of the Rice Tariffication Law’s first year,
Agriculture Secretary William Dar said the country targets to manage
importation and just bring in 1.5 million to 1.6 million metric tons of rice
this year.
Dar
said Sen. Cynthia Villar, chair of the Senate committee on agriculture and
food, said that with the country’s adequacy level of 85 to 87 percent, the
shortfall is just about 1.6 million MT so that’s what the country could import.
“That
is our direction. Managing importation and enhancing local productivity equals
better for rice farmers, they are more productive and more competitive and at
the end of the day, better income,” Dar said.
Villar
said importation has been declining and based on her projections, imports will
only average 400,000 MT per quarter to reach the 1.6 million MT.
“Last
year, we imported nearly three million MT, so it will be half and that would be
good for our farmers,” Villar said.
“And
now the DA is already controlling the issuance of SPSIC (sanitary and
phytosanitary import clearance) and importers are also afraid partly because of
the coronavirus,” she said.
Further,
Dar refuted claims that the Philippines may have a hard time importing from
neighbouring countries Thailand and Vietnam as the two countries are facing
their own challenges.
“I
think that is too extreme. After this summer harvest, we will open up again the
importation so that on rainy days coming June and July, we will have enough
supply of rice,” Dar said.
Right
now, rice inventory of the country is good for 80 days or almost three months
and after the summer harvest season by May, inventory is expected to be
sufficient for five months.
The
United States Department of Agriculture-Foreign Agricultural Service said
earlier the Philippines will bring in less rice this year but it is expected to
maintain its status of being the world’s biggest rice importer, beating China
for the second year running in the global market.
The
Philippines is expected to emerge as the top global importer of rice in 2020 as
the new regime for Filipinos’ main staple continues. This year, the country is
seen importing some 2.5 million metric tons of rice, 13.8 percent lower than
last year’s 2.9 million.
The
USDA already lowered this year’s projection from the earlier 2.7 million MT as
the Philippines will tone down its rice importation amid excessive supply
coupled with improvements in local production.
China,
on the other hand, is seen buying some 2.3 million MT for 2020.
Last
year, the Philippines ended up as the world’s biggest buyer of rice, reaching a
record high 2.9 million MT as the country opened up the industry to
liberalization.
E. Visayas farms get 98K bags of high-value rice seeds
By
Gerico Sabalza March
6, 2020, 4:57 pm
HYBRID
RICE. A
rice farm in Pagsang-an village Abuyog, Leyte, a demonstration farm for hybrid
rice farming. The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) said on Thursday
(Mar. 5, 2020) a total of 98,264 bags of 20 kilos high-value rice seeds were
transported to Eastern Visayas for the dry season. (PNA photo by Gerico
Sabalza)
ABUYOG, Leyte – The Philippine Rice
Research Institute (PhilRice) said on Thursday some 98,264 bags of high-value
rice seeds are intended for shipment to Eastern Visayas for the dry season.
As of March 4, some 88,530 seeds
were distributed in the provinces of Leyte, Southern Leyte, Biliran, and Samar.
These areas are among the 57
provinces nationwide with high potential for competitiveness based on the size
of area harvested, yield level, cost of production, and share of irrigated
area, PhilRice Bicol branch station director Victoria Lapitan said in an
interview during the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) anniversary here.
“We are already at 90 percent in
terms of distribution. In fact, during our review in February, Eastern Visayas
is among the regions with the highest efficiency in the delivery of the
intervention,” she said.
For the wet season, PhilRice
targets to distribute about 139,249 bags of certified rice seeds in the region,
covering 69,624 hectares of farm.
“We have increased our target since
we do our best to accommodate all farmer-beneficiaries listed in the Registry
System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture,” Lapitan said, adding that some of the
stocks have been delivered to the early planters.
The distribution of high yielding
seeds is one of the components implemented under the Rice Competitiveness
Enhancement Fund (RCEF) meant to increase the rice sector’s productivity and
boost the income of farmers.
It is mandated under the RTL that
the sector is guaranteed for a PHP10-billion annual budget for six years
starting 2019 accumulated from the tariff revenues.
Among the other components of RCEF
is the provision of modern farm equipment, expanded credit assistance, training
for local farmers and other extension services.
“We are experiencing the birthing
pain of RTL. It is new and during its first year of implementation, we haven’t
felt its goal yet. But we are doing our best to efficiently and properly
deliver government services to our hardworking farmers,” Lapitan added. (PNA)
Farmers to benefit from Rice Tariffication Law this
year
By
Gail Momblan March
6, 2020, 7:19 pm
REAPING
BENEFITS. The
Department of Agriculture in Western Visayas (DA 6) said on Thursday (Mar. 5,
2020) rice consumers benefited from the Rice Tariffication Law because of the
variety of rice choices. Remelyn Recoter (middle), regional executive director
of DA 6, says the farmers will reap the direct benefits of the law this
year. (PNA photo by Gail Momblan)
ILOILO CITY – After a year of the
implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) on Thursday, the Department
of Agriculture in Western Visayas (DA-6) said farmers in the region will
further gain from its benefits this year.
Remelyn Recoter, regional executive
director of DA 6, said in a press conference the first year of the RTL
implementation has done good to the consumers.
Citing studies, Recoter said the
RTL has caused a 10 percent rice price drop.
“We are requesting our farmers to
give chance to our law because there had been clamors to amend the law. We are
hoping this 2020, the 2019 (budget) and the 2020 will be implemented,” she
said.
As of Thursday, the DA 6 has
received 2,578 letters of intent from farmer cooperatives and associations.
Recoter said more than half of the
number has already been accredited and can avail of the benefits under the RTL.
The Philippine Rice Research
Institute (PhilRice), one of the implementing agencies of the RTL, has already
kicked off its distribution of seeds.
Fennie Lyn Pantin, regional focal
person of PhilRice, however, said the distribution of seeds to farmer
cooperatives and associations was done in the third week of October last year.
“Some of the farmers have already planted when the seeds arrived,” she said.
Recoter said the certified seeds
that will be distributed to the farmers will increase one metric ton of harvest
per hectare.
On the other hand, the Philippine
Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech), another
implementing agency, will start distributing farm machinery this March.
Thirty-eight farmers’ cooperatives
and associations will benefit from the mechanization, which include farm
equipment like four-wheel tractor, hand tractor, floating tiller, combine
harvester, among others.
“For the mechanization, the
intention is to decrease the cost of production because the biggest expense in
rice farming is labor that is about more or less 30 to 40 percent,” Recoter
said.
For the first year of the RTL
implementation, the Landbank of the Philippines has also assisted farmers in
rice production.
Giovanni Baoy, Land Bank of the
Philippines Capiz Lending Center head, said that the bank has so far released
PHP17.6 million to 194 farmers for palay production.
“The budget is PHP42, 000 per
hectare for hybrid and PHP37, 000 per hectare of inbred,” Baoy said. (PNA)
170 farm machines to benefit Eastern Visayas farmers
By
Gerico Sabalza March
6, 2020, 3:52 pm
FARM
MACHINERY. Some
of the farm machines displayed at the Department of Agriculture Rice Processing
Center in Abuyog, Leyte. At least 170 machines will benefit rice farmers in
Eastern Visayas this year as part of the 2019 Rice Competitiveness Enhancement
Fund. (PNA photo by Sarwell Meniano)
ABUYOG, Leyte – At least 170 machines will
benefit rice farmers in Eastern Visayas as part of the 2019 Rice
Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).
Philippine Center for Post-harvest
Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) Visayas cluster area manager Remelie
Hermoso said on Thursday the first batch of machinery and equipment is funded
under the PHP5 billion RCEF.
These machines up for delivery
on-site between March to April include 35 four-wheel tractors, 28 hand
tractors, and 17 floating tillers meant for land preparation; 15 walk-behind
transplanters, 13 riding-type transplanters, and four mechanical seeders used
in crop establishment; 32 combine harvester, 11 small threshers, and 11 reapers
used in harvesting and threshing; and four impeller type rice millers.
In the region, some 47 farmer’s
cooperative associations in 38 towns will benefit from the first batch of
mechanization program – 34 in Leyte province, five in Western Samar, and four
groups both in Biliran and Southern Leyte.
Hermoso said the second batch of
equipment for 2019 is also expected to be delivered within this year for 60
other farmers’ groups from 46 towns in the region.
“We recommend other farmers’
associations to merge with other groups to meet the minimum requirement of 50
hectares. This has been the issue why others don’t qualify,” Hermoso said
during the first anniversary of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) here.
RTL or Republic Act 11203 took
effect on March 5 last year that opened the Philippine rice market and placed a
minimum 35 percent tariff on imported rice.
The tariff revenues go to RCEF,
which is used for programs dedicated to increasing the sector’s productivity
and boosting the income of farmers.
Under the RCEF, PHP10-billion is
guaranteed for the rice sector annually for the next six years for the
provision of modern farm equipment, high-yielding seeds, expanded credit
assistance, training for local farmers and other extension services. (PNA)
Can rice survive climate change?
6 March 2020
Explore similar themes
Farmers planting rice in paddy fields in Indonesia.
(Laura Villadiego)
Every June, Thailand’s fields
fill with millions of farmers as they begin to plant rice, the foundation of
the country’s diet. In 2015, however, the land was so dry that the government
asked them to postpone the start of the
season and to refrain from growing a second crop during the
winter. Production fell by 15 per cent that year and it took two years for the
world’s second largest rice exporter to return to former production levels.
Thailand is not the only country
where rice is threatened by the changes in rainfall and temperature patterns
linked to the climate emergency. In Vietnam, rising sea levels are increasing
soil salinity to such an extent that the paddy fields will no longer be
productive. In West Bengal, in eastern India, drought and flooding are
already causing recurrent crop failures. “Rice is highly vulnerable
to climate change, so factors such as sea level, salinity and temperature rises
will affect rice production,” says agricultural consultant and researcher Wyn
Ellis.
Many scientific investigations
have confirmed how sensitive rice is to climate change. A study published in
the Nature research journal, for example, shows how
rising temperatures could increase arsenic concentrations in rice paddies and
reduce yields by almost 40 per cent between now and the year 2100. Other
studies also forecast yield losses in places as disparate as Kenya or India if
adaptation measures are not taken.
In a world where almost half the
population – 3.5 billion people according to the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) – depend on rice for a living,
this fall in yields could be fatal for global food sovereignty. Asia would be
the hardest hit, but the losses would be felt around the globe, with rice
accounting for around 20 per cent of the total calories consumed worldwide.
Paradoxically, rice farming is
also one of the biggest contributors to climate change, producing 10 per cent of
global methane emissions, which explains why a total of 48 countries have
included rice in the national emission
reduction strategies set out in their nationally determined
contributions (NDCs) to combat climate change.
Rice, moreover, takes up between
34 and 43 per cent of the total water used for irrigation around the world.
“Rice uses more water than any other crop,” says Ellis, who is coordinating the
Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP). Intensive rice growing also depletes the soil
and lowers its fertility. “Intensive double and triple monocropping of rice in
Asia is associated with the depletion of soil micronutrients, the build-up of
soil toxicity and a high incidence of pests and diseases,” reports the FAO.
Rice is the world’s number three crop in terms of the land dedicated to its
cultivation, with a total of 167 million hectares in 2018, only behind wheat
and maize.
There is, however, very little
awareness about it compared with other crops, such as oil palm, soya or timber.
“Rice is overlooked, despite the environmental impact [of these other crops]
being much lower,” says the SRP coordinator. “We need to shift attention from
high profile crops to high impact crops.”
This is what Ellis is working
towards, as coordinator of the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP), a
project that sets social and environmental sustainability standards for rice,
under the auspices of the United Nations and the International Rice Research
Institute (IRRI).
The platform, which is currently
working with five million farmers in 22 countries, serves as a sustainability
label with criteria that farmers have to meet to be certified, such as reduced
fertilizer use, integrated pest management, and, above all, good water use.
“Rice needs to be seen not just as a commodity but as a crop that is part and
parcel of a landscape...where smarter water use is required,” says Ellis.
It is hoped that the label’s
arrival on supermarket shelves will make consumers think about the impacts of
this industry and will reward sustainable rice cultivation with their buying
decisions. “If we don’t take action we are going to end up with increased
volatility and less stable supply chains, which will make prices skyrocket over
the next 25 years,” explains Ellis.
New planting schedules and crop
rotation
Vietnamese rice farmers, like their
Thai counterparts, are also changing their planting schedules. In their case,
however, the problem is not too little but too much water, and of the kind not
suited to rice growing: seawater.
Seawater intrusion has
been affecting the Mekong Delta for years, undermining the harvests in a region
that produces as much as 50 per cent of the country’s rice. Rising sea levels
are not the only problem. The construction of dams and poor rainfall in the
upper reaches of the river also mean that the Mekong has less flow when it
reaches the delta and does not have enough strength to push back the seawater,
explains IRRI researcher Leo Sebastian. “We are already seeing the major
impacts that climate change and events such as El Niño are having on the Mekong
Delta,” says the scientist. El Niño is a weather event often accompanied by
drought.
To limit the damage caused by
saltwater intrusion, Sebastian is mapping the high-risk areas so that farmers
know when to plant. They usually harvest in late February or March, but if they
plant earlier they can harvest in early February and prevent salt intrusion
from destroying the harvest,” he explains. During the 2016 El Niño event (before
the map was launched), 200,000 hectares of rice paddies were affected by the
rise in sea level.
Despite adaptation measures such
as dikes and adapted irrigation systems, in some parts of the delta, rice will
nonetheless have to be replaced by resistant crops such as coconut. “There will
always be crops that can be planted. It is human nature [to seek solutions],
but there will always be crops that can adapt to different conditions,” says
Sebastian. Another possibility, as the scientists points out, may be a further
increase in the already popular shrimp farms in the area. “It will be the
market that decides what is produced,” he concludes.
Elsewhere in the world, other
options are being tested to help rice survive these increasingly hostile
conditions. In some places, such as Thailand, rice is being rotated with other crops,
such as sunn hemp. “We are trying to discourage intensive
cultivation and to encourage rotation with other crops,” explains Ellis.
Tests are being conducted with
‘aerobic’ rice, which needs much less water. In addition, some regions are
leaving behind the famous IR8 variety (the high yielding variety propelling the
Green Revolution that began in the 1960s) and returning to native varieties
that are less aggressive on the soil. The IRRI, from which IR8 emerged, is also
developing a saltwater-tolerant rice, and several laboratories are working on
varieties that are more resistant to drought.
And although the history of rice
belongs to Asia, Ellis assures us that the adaptation of this cereal is key
to development in regions
such as Africa – the continent where rice consumption is
growing the most – as well as to the achievement of the sustainable development
goals at global level. “We all have a role to play in making sure we have
access to a sustainable food supply for years to come,” concludes the
coordinator of the Sustainable Rice Platform.
This article has been translated from Spanish.
Tissue-Digging Nanodrills Do Just Enough Damage
Molecule-sized drills do the
damage they are designed to do. That’s bad news for disease.
Scientists at Rice University, Biola University and the Texas
A&M Health Science Center have further validation that their molecular motors,
light-activated rotors that spin up to 3 million times per second, can target
diseased cells and kill them in minutes.
The team led by Biola molecular biochemist Richard Gunasekera and
Rice chemist James Tour showed
their motors are highly effective at destroying cells in three multicellular
test organisms: worms, plankton and mice.
A study in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces shows
the motors caused various degrees of damage to tissues in all three species.
The journal plans to designate the paper as an open-access ACS Editors’ Choice.
The project’s original goal was to target drug-resistant bacteria, cancer and
other disease-causing cells and destroy them without damaging adjacent healthy
cells. Tour has argued cells and bacteria have no possible defense against a
nanomechanical drilling force strong enough to punch through their walls.
“Now it has been taken to a whole
new level,” Tour said. “The work here shows that whole organisms, such as small
worms and water fleas, can be killed by nanomachines that drill into them. This
is not just single-cell death, but whole organism, with cell death in the
millions.
“They can also be used to drill
into skin, thereby suggesting utility in the treatment of things like
pre-melanoma,” he said.
The researchers saw different effects in each of the three
models. In the worm, C. elegans, the fast
motors caused rapid depigmentation as the motors first caused nanomechanical
disruption of cells and tissues. In the plankton, Daphnia, the motors first
dismembered exterior limbs. In both cases, after a few days, most or all of the
organisms died.
For mouse models, researchers
applied the nanomachines in a topical solution to the skin. Activating the fast
motors caused lesions and ulcerations, demonstrating their ability to function
in larger animals.
Damaging impacts of warming moderated by
migration of rainfed crops
Continued
migration, however, may result in significant environmental costs
Date:
March 6, 2020
Source:
Colorado State University
Summary:
Many
studies seek to estimate the adverse effects of climate change on crops, but
most research assumes that the geographic distribution of crops will remain
unchanged in the future. New research using 40 years of global data, has found
that exposure to rising high temperatures has been substantially moderated by
the migration of rainfed corn, wheat and rice. Scientists said continued
migration, however, may result in significant environmental costs.
Share:
FULL STORY
Many studies seek to estimate the
adverse effects of climate change on crops, but most research assumes that the
geographic distribution of crops will remain unchanged in the future.
New research using 40 years of
global data, led by Colorado State University, has found that exposure to
rising high temperatures has been substantially moderated by the migration of
rainfed corn, wheat and rice. Scientists said continued migration, however, may
result in significant environmental costs.
The study, "Climate
adaptation by crop migration," is published March 6 in Nature Communications.
"There's substantial concern
about the impacts of climate change on agriculture and how we can adapt to
those changes," said Nathan Mueller, assistant professor in the Department
of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability at CSU and a senior author on the
paper.
"We often think about how
farmers can adapt to shifting climate conditions by changing crop varieties or planting
dates. But farmers have also been changing what crops they are growing over
time, collectively leading to large-scale shifts in crop distribution. This
pathway of adaptation has been underexplored."
40 years of data from around the
world
Using new, high-resolution
datasets on crop areas around the world, the research team analyzed the
location of crops, climate, and irrigation from 1973 to 2012. They focused on
rainfed crops, since they are highly sensitive to changes in temperature and
extreme weather.
"We found that on average,
over these cropland areas, things are getting warmer," said Mueller, also
a researcher in the CSU College of Agricultural Sciences.
The study showed that exposure to
increased high temperatures for corn, wheat and rice was much less than it
would have been if the crops were positioned where they were in the 1970s.
CSU postdoctoral fellow and first
author Lindsey Sloat said this does not mean there is an unlimited capacity for
farmers to adapt to climate change by shifting where they grow crops.
"If you add new farmland,
that comes with massive environmental consequences," she said. "Land
use change in agriculture is one of the biggest drivers of biodiversity loss,
with consequences for carbon storage. We can mitigate some of the effects of
climate change by increasing irrigation, but there are also environmental costs
on that front."
Researchers also found that
unlike the other crops, there has been a huge expansion in the production of
soybeans, and that these crops are being grown in hotter areas around the
world.
Next steps
Sloat said the research team will
next delve into analyzing other climate variables, moving beyond temperature to
consider how changes in a harvested area can alter exposure to other extreme
climate conditions.
"Since this migration has
been extensive enough in the past to substantially alter exposure to climate
trends, we need to think about what our agricultural landscapes are going to
look like in the future as warming increases," said Mueller.
Co-authors on the paper include
Steven Davis from the University of California, Irvine; James Gerber, Deepak
Ray and Paul West from the University of Minnesota; and Frances Moore from the
University of California, Davis.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Colorado State
University. Original written by Mary Guiden. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
1. Lindsey L. Sloat, Steven J. Davis, James S. Gerber,
Frances C. Moore, Deepak K. Ray, Paul C. West, Nathaniel D. Mueller. Climate
adaptation by crop migration. Nature
Communications, 2020; 11 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15076-4
Cite This Page:
Colorado State University. "Damaging impacts of warming
moderated by migration of rainfed crops: Continued migration, however, may
result in significant environmental costs." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 6
March 2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200306122507.htm>.
Dar on year-old rice tariff law: Farmers are
the winners
Philippine
Daily Inquirer / 04:38 AM March 07, 2020
The
country’s Agriculture chief described the controversial rice tariffication law
(RTL) as the “best reform that ever happened to Philippine agriculture” despite
pleas from small-scale farmers and other organized groups to review the policy
because of its repercussions to the poorest stakeholders of the rice industry.
Speaking
during the first year anniversary celebration of the RTL in Urdaneta,
Pangasinan, on Thursday with Sen. Cynthia Villar, Agriculture Secretary William
Dar said the liberalized importation law would make Filipino palay farmers more
competitive and on a par with their counterparts from neighboring
rice-producing countries like Vietnam and Thailand, where most of the country’s
rice imports come from.
He also
noted the year-old policy has resulted in more rice options for consumers.
“Just after a year [since the law was passed], there are already several rice
variants available in the market … Consumers now have a choice from regular
milled, well-milled and fancy rice varieties,” he said.
Both Dar and
Villar said they were banking on the annual P10-billion rice competitiveness
enhancement fund (RCEF) under the RTL to cushion the impact of low palay
prices, which continued to hover between P12 and P17 a kilogram against rates
from the previous years between P15 and P20 a kilo. Villar is the proponent of
the law.
As of February,
however, the RCEF has not been fully given to the beneficiaries. Except for
credit, other components such as provisions for seeds, extension services and
mechanization have yet to be completed.
After
imported rice flooded the local market, small-scale farmers who were not able
to sustain the impact of tumbling palay rates have either sold their lands,
migrated to the city or cut their planting activities.
Nonetheless,
Dar noted that “under RTL, Filipinos are the winners, rice farmers are the
winners.”
Groups like
Bantay Bigas, Ibon Foundation and Amihan Women continued to rally for the
amendment of the policy, while organizations such as the Federation of Free
Farmers, Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura and Alyansa Agrikultura have been
urging the Department of Agriculture to impose additional safeguard duties on
rice to control the arrival of imported rice.
Government
aims to keep rice imports at 1.6 MMT
March 6, 2020
In
File Photo: The National Food Authority stores its buffer rice stock consisting
of imports and paddy it purchased from farmers in its warehouses.
A year after the rice trade
liberalization (RTL) law took effect, Manila said it is targeting to maintain
imports at around 1.6 million metric tons (MMT)—the estimated shortfall in
local output—to stabilize the farm-gate price of the staple.
Agriculture Secretary William D.
Dar said the country’s rice production is capable of supplying only 85 percent
to 87 percent of the requirements of Filipino consumers.
“That’s the direction [to keep
imports at that level]. Managing importation and enhancing local productivity
equals better opportunity for rice farmers, and they are more productive and
competitive and they have higher income,” Dar told reporters in an interview at
the sidelines of the government’s celebration of the anniversary of the RTL
law.
The Department of Agriculture
(DA) is aiming to hike local palay production to a record-high 19.6 MMT this
year via the interventions bankrolled by the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement
Fund (RCEF) created by the RTL law.
The law deregulated the local
rice industry and eased import rules to increase the supply of the staple and
make it more affordable.
Dar also said the tightness in
global rice supply due to the decline in the output of Thailand and Vietnam is
an “opportunity” for local palay prices to recover. Thailand and Vietnam are
currently grappling with the ill effects of a severe El Niño on their farms.
He said the government expects
the arrival of rice imports to decline during harvest this month after the DA
invalidated thousands of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPS-IC)
that were unused since last year.
“As what we have been saying, it
is managing the balance between enhancing productivity and competitiveness, and
once you have some idea then you can target your importation,” said Dar.
Dar noted that the nationwide
rice stocks are good for 80 days. “After this main harvest we will open up the
importation again during the rainy days starting June to ensure we have
sufficient supply.”
Appeal
Rice industry traders and
importers told the BusinessMirror that the DA, through the Bureau of Plant
Industry, which oversees rice importation, has appealed to them in a recent
dialogue to cut or if possible, totally stop buying imported rice during
harvest.
However, a trader noted that
everything will be “business as usual” for them since their operations depend
on importing the staple unless the government will again stop issuing SPS-ICs.
The government stopped issuing SPS-ICs in September and October last year.
“We don’t over-purchase we just
bring in whatever is the demand of our buyers,” a Manila-based trader told the
BusinessMirror.
Another trader based in Metro
Manila told the BusinessMirror that rice imports have been declining due to
lower demand. This could cause the high carry-over stocks to increase further
after harvest.
“There are reports in Vietnam that
the Philippines will stop issuing SPS-IC. What can we do if [Manila will] stop
issuing it?” the trader said.
Data from the Philippine
Statistics Authority obtained by the BusinessMirror indicated that the country
imported 2.76 MMT of rice last year, 38 percent higher than the nearly 2 MMT
recorded in 2018.
PSA data also showed that the
value of crops production, which accounted for 50.6 percent of total farm
output, fell slightly to P402.894 billion in 2019 from P406.119 billion in
2018.
Despite a 5-percent expansion in
the fourth quarter, total unmilled rice output in 2019 declined by 1.3 percent
due to a series of contractions in the previous quarters.
Total palay output fell to a
three-year low of 18.814 MMT, PSA data showed.
The government said the typhoons
that struck the country in December had reduced the production of rice and
other crops.
Aside from the typhoons, the
onslaught of African swine fever also slowed the expansion of farm output last
year. The growth rate settled at 0.7 percent, lower than the government’s goal
of 2 percent, but slightly higher than the 0.54 percent recorded in 2018
Louise Maureen
Simeon (The Philippine Star
)
- March 7, 2020 - 12:00am
URDANETA,
Pangasinan, Philippines – The Philippines plans to keep rice imports at a
minimum this year, just enough to meet the shortage in local production, even
with a liberalized rice regime already in place.
During
the celebration last week of the Rice Tariffication Law’s first year,
Agriculture Secretary William Dar said the country targets to manage importation
and just bring in 1.5 million to 1.6 million metric tons of rice this year.
Dar
said Sen. Cynthia Villar, chair of the Senate committee on agriculture and
food, said that with the country’s adequacy level of 85 to 87 percent, the
shortfall is just about 1.6 million MT so that’s what the country could import.
“That
is our direction. Managing importation and enhancing local productivity equals
better for rice farmers, they are more productive and more competitive and at
the end of the day, better income,” Dar said.
Villar
said importation has been declining and based on her projections, imports will
only average 400,000 MT per quarter to reach the 1.6 million MT.
“Last
year, we imported nearly three million MT, so it will be half and that would be
good for our farmers,” Villar said.
“And
now the DA is already controlling the issuance of SPSIC (sanitary and
phytosanitary import clearance) and importers are also afraid partly because of
the coronavirus,” she said.
Further,
Dar refuted claims that the Philippines may have a hard time importing from
neighbouring countries Thailand and Vietnam as the two countries are facing
their own challenges.
“I
think that is too extreme. After this summer harvest, we will open up again the
importation so that on rainy days coming June and July, we will have enough
supply of rice,” Dar said.
Right
now, rice inventory of the country is good for 80 days or almost three months
and after the summer harvest season by May, inventory is expected to be
sufficient for five months.
The
United States Department of Agriculture-Foreign Agricultural Service said
earlier the Philippines will bring in less rice this year but it is expected to
maintain its status of being the world’s biggest rice importer, beating China
for the second year running in the global market.
The
Philippines is expected to emerge as the top global importer of rice in 2020 as
the new regime for Filipinos’ main staple continues. This year, the country is
seen importing some 2.5 million metric tons of rice, 13.8 percent lower than
last year’s 2.9 million.
The
USDA already lowered this year’s projection from the earlier 2.7 million MT as
the Philippines will tone down its rice importation amid excessive supply
coupled with improvements in local production.
China,
on the other hand, is seen buying some 2.3 million MT for 2020.
Last
year, the Philippines ended up as the world’s biggest buyer of rice, reaching a
record high 2.9 million MT as the country opened up the industry to
liberalization.
Millers irked over space crunch
Kharar,
March 5
Around
17 millers in Kurali are facing difficulties while delivering rice to the Food
Corporation of India (FCI) due to shortage of space.
They
have written to the FCI Divisional Manager stating that most of the rice
millers have not delivered even a single wagon of rice from the past 20 days
due to space crunch. The letter states that 35,000 MT rice was yet to be
delivered to the FCI by millers. They said as there is no contractor in Kurali
to load rice in a special rack and as a result, the rack has been diverted to
Morinda centre. — OC
Traders recount losses as fire guts rice mill in Taraba
Justin Tyopuusu, Jalingo
Rice traders at the Gidin Dorowa Rice Mill in Wukari Local
Government Area of Taraba State have recounted losses resulting from the fire
that gutted the rice mill on Tuesday night.
At least one hundred and seventy bags of rice, as well as some
rice processing equipment, were reportedly burnt.
Vice-chairman of the rice millers association, Alhaji Salisu
Mamman, said on Thursday that the watchmen at the factory informed them that
the fire started from a nearby dumpsite and spread to the factory.
Mamman said, “According to them, when they saw the fire, they
quenched it but unknown to them, the fire had penetrated beneath the waste
product and sparked out of control.
“The fire burnt three of our processing machines; one shop, one
union office, one fashion designer store and about one hundred and seventy bags
of rice.”
One of the traders, Fachino Boyi, while recounting the losses
said the damage caused by the inferno was over twenty million naira.
“Most of the machines that were destroyed are very expensive and
as ordinary people, it is not easy to overcome this.
“Our main source of income has been seriously affected and we
call on spirited individuals to come to our aid.
“We also want the government to come to our aid to enable us to
recover from the lost and acquire new machines to continue our business,” he
said.
The Caretaker Chairman of Wukari Local Government Council, Adi
Daniel, who visited the scene of the fire incident urged the traders to remain
calm even as he promised to forward the report of the incident to the state
government and other relevant organisations for prompt action.
Traders count losses as fire guts Taraba rice mill
Justin Tyopuusu, Jalingo
Rice traders at the Gidin Dorowa Rice Mill in the Wukari Local
Government Area of Taraba State, on Thursday, recounted their losses from the
fire that gutted the mill on Tuesday.
At least 170 bags of rice and processing equipment were
reportedly burnt in the inferno that destroyed the mill.
The Vice-Chairman of the Rice Millers Association, Alhaji Salisu
Mamman, told journalists on Thursday that the watchmen at the factory informed
the members that the fire started from the waste being burnt and spread to the
mill.
Mamman stated, “According to them, when they saw the fire, they
quenched it, but unknown to them, the fire had spread underneath the rice waste
and went out of control.
“The fire burnt three of our processing machines, one shop, the
union office, one fashion designer’s store and about 170 bags of rice.”
A member of the association, Mr Fachino Boyi, while recounting
the losses, said the damage caused by the inferno was worth over N20m.
He stated, “Most of the machines that were destroyed are very
expensive and as ordinary people, it is not easy to overcome this.
“Our main source of income has been seriously affected and we
call on spirited individuals to come to our aid.
“We also want the government to come to our aid to enable us
recover from the loss and acquire new machines to continue our business.”
The Caretaker Chairman, Wukari Local Government Area, Adi
Daniel, who visited the site of the inferno, urged the traders to remain calm
even as he promised to forward a report on the incident to the state government
and other relevant organisations for prompt action.
Our correspondent reports that some rice buyers, who also lost
their goods to the incident, came from other parts of the country.
Vijayawada: Conduct civic polls peacefully, SP M Ravindranath Babu
tells police
5
March 2020 10:35 PM IST
Krishna
district SP M Ravindranath Babu speaking at a workshop in Machilipatnam on
Thursday
HIGHLIGHTS
Vijayawada: Krishna district
Superintendent of Police M Ravindranath Babu has asked the police to get ready
for the peaceful conduct of local body elec...
Vijayawada: Krishna district Superintendent of Police M Ravindranath
Babu has asked the police to get ready for the peaceful conduct of local body
elections.
He presided over a one-day
workshop conducted at the Rice Millers Association hall in Machilipatnam on
Thursday as part of the preparations for the municipal, panchayat and MPTC
elections to be held soon.
Speaking on the occasion, SP said
the police will play key role in peaceful conduct of elections.
Bandar DSP Mahaboob Basha,
officials and staff from the sub divisions of Bandar and Avanigadda attended
the workshop.
Past In Review for March 7 and 8
100 YEARS AGO (1920)
— Rachel H. Rice, an 83-year-old
area resident and one of the founders of the Women Crusaders, a group that
fought for temperance, had been featured in the Cleveland Plain Dealer magazine
section. Rice, whose maiden name was Rachel Hole, and other Crusaders would
stand in pairs in front of saloon doors and plead with those about to enter to
refrain from patronizing the thirst parlors. In the Plain Dealer article, the
story was told of how Rice met Tom Thum in such a manner on a day the Barnum
Circus was in Alliance. A street in Mount Union, Rice Street, was said to have
been named in honor of Rice, who later became identified with the Woman’s
Christian Temperance Union. The article was written by Mount Union journalism
student Russell Rymer.
75 YEARS AGO (1945)
— More details were provided
about the service of Pfc. Roger Taylor, the Beloit soldier reported as killed
in action in the previous day’s edition. Taylor, a 1942 Beloit High graduate,
lost his life in Belgium on Jan. 6, a date he was previously listed as missing
in action. Second trumpeter in the Depot Band at Fort McClellan, Alabama, he
was assigned to the 194th Infantry when he reached Europe. A member of the
Alliance City Band, he was the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Taylor and had
helped his father work the farm in addition to working at Babcock and Wilcox.
He was also survived by a fiancee, Virginia Israel, a resident of Westville.
— Alliance’s Pfc. Ray Russell was
reported as missing in action since Jan. 27 on Luzon in the Philippines while
serving with an infantry unit. He had a 1-year-old son that he had never seen.
— Reported as wounded in action
were Alliance’s Cpl. Richard B. Davies, 22, a paratrooper, on Feb. 17 in the
Pacific; Alliance’s Sgt. Fred Jones, 23, an infantryman in Italy on Feb. 11;
Deerfield’s Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, 27, on Feb. 5 in the Philippines; and Minerva’s
Sgt. Jess W. Sutton in the Philippines and Pfc. William T. Grimes in Europe.
— Eileen Davis, an Atwater High
graduate who served as a nurse at Alliance City Hospital, was commissioned an
ensign in the Navy Nurse Corps.
— Ensign Winthrop C. Difford, 23,
an Alliance High and Mount Union graduate, was the outstanding student in his
group of officer trainees attending diesel school in Coronado, California.
— Alliance High grad Lt. Robert
Roberts Jr., 23, had completed 25 combat missions as bombardier on “My Gal,” a
B-24 Liberator
— Sebring’s Pfc. Lynn S. Morley
had received a Purple Heart for wounds suffered Jan. 4 in Belgium.
50 YEARS AGO (1970)
— Christi Barret was crowned
basketball queen at State Street Junior High.
—Mrs. Harry Bush, six-year
chairman of the Ohezu Neighborhood, was presented the Thanks Badge by the Girl
Scouts. Mrs. Bush, who was retiring as a leader, was a member of one of the
first Girl Scout troops organized in the Sebring-Beloit area in 1934. Also
honored for 10 years as volunteers were Mrs. Robert Cline (Cadette Troop 74 in
Sebring) and Mrs. Robert Kirksey (Brownie Troop 750 of Maple Ridge)
— Eighth-grader Connie Sonagere
was crowned the spelling champion at West Branch Junior High after correctly
spelling “succeeded” and “obliged.”
25 YEARS AGO (1995)
— Gary Charles Durell, a 1968
Alliance High graduate, was one of two Americans killed in Karachi, Pakistan,
when two gunmen jumped out of a taxi and sprayed bullets at a van carrying
American consulate workers. Durrell, 45, was a communications technician who
had been working in Pakistan since November. Durell’s parents, Quentin and
Ellen Durell, residents of Nellabrook Avenue, learned about their son’s death
via a radio report at 6:30 a.m.
Weekly
inflation drops 0.32pc
By APP
March 6, 2020
ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator
(SPI)-based weekly inflation for the week ended March 5 decreased by 0.32pc as
compared to the previous week.
The SPI for the week under review in the combined income group
was recorded at 128.74 points as against 129.15 points registered in the
previous week, according to latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of
Statistics (PBS).
The weekly SPI was collected with base 2015-16, covering 17
urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.
The SPI for the lowest consumption group, up to Rs17,732,
witnessed 0.28pc increase, as it went up from 132.23 points in the last week to
132.60 points during the week under review.
As compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI for
the combined consumption group in the week under review witnessed an increase
of 11.59pc, while for the lowest group, it increased by 10.78pc.
Meanwhile, the SPI for the consumption groups from Rs17,733 to
Rs22,888, and from Rs22,889 to Rs29,517 increased by 0.16pc, and 0.02pc,
whereas from Rs29,518 to Rs44,175 and above Rs44,175 per month, it reduced by
0.11pc and 0.6pc, respectively.
During the week under review, average prices of 18 item
registered a decrease, while that of 12 items prices increased with the prices
of 21 items remaining unchanged.
The prices of the commodities that recorded an increase in their
prices during the week under review included potatoes, onions, eggs (farm),
sugar, long cloth, bananas, lawn printed, rice (irri-6), georgette, shirting,
mutton, toilet soap, washing soap, gur, curd, vegetable ghee, cooked daal and
beef (with bone).
Similarly, the prices of commodities that witnessed a decline
included tomatoes, LPG, petrol, hi-speed diesel, garlic, pulses (gram, masoor,
mash, moong), wheat flour, chicken (farm) and mustard oil.
Commodities with no price change included rice (basmati), bread,
fresh milk, powdered milk, cooking oil, vegetable ghee (pouch), salt, chillies,
tea, cooked beef, tea (prepared cup), cigarettes, gents sandal, ladies sandal,
electricity charges, gas charges, firewood, energy saver, matchbox and
telephone call.
Onion and garlic prices dip while
other essentials get costlier
STAFF REPORTER, Dhaka
A customer buys vegetables from a seller at Kaptan
bazaar in the capital yesterday. FOCUS BANGLA PHOTO
The price of onions and garlic
declined last week even while the costs of rice, edible oils, vegetables, and
fish went up.
Visits to different kitchen
markets in the capital, including Karwan Bazar, Malibagh, and Mirpur-2,
revealed that local onions were retailing at Tk 70–90 per kg yesterday.
At wholesale markets, local
onions sold for Tk 55–70 per kg, while the Myanmar variety went for Tk 70–75
per kg, Chinese onions for Tk 50–60 per kg, Pakistani ones for Tk 55–60 per kg,
and Egyptian onions for Tk 55–70 per kg.
Onions from Myanmar retailed at
Tk 72–75 per kg, while those from China sold for Tk 60–80 per kg, those from
Pakistan went for Tk 70–90 per kg, and Egyptian onions fetched Tk 70–80 per kg.
A week earlier, the same varieties had sold in the range of Tk 90–120 per kg.
But the Trading Corporation of
Bangladesh (TCB) revealed that onion prices are still 219% higher than at this
time last year.
Also in decline is the price of
garlic—it dropped by Tk 70–100 per kg in the last two days owing to increased
supply of the local variety in the markets.
Imported garlic was selling for
Tk 170–180 per kg yesterday, down from the earlier range of Tk 170–220, while
local varieties were going for Tk 80–100 per kg.
However, edible cooking oils,
vegetables, fish, and some varieties of rice became costlier this week.
The price of loose soybean oil,
which had shown a slight decline in February, has increased again. According to
TCB data, the price increased to Tk 90 per litre from last week’s price of Tk
88 per litre. There has also been a notable increase in fish prices, which traders
blamed on a decline in supply resulting from the fishing ban imposed by the
government.
The Department of Fisheries (DoF)
imposed a two-month ban on fishing in select areas of five major sanctuaries
across six southern districts from March 1. The ban aims to protect hilsa and
other fish during their breeding season in order to increase production, DoF
officials said.
The ban, which is scheduled to
end on April 30, covers 392 kilometres of the Ilisha, Meghna, Tentulia,
Bishkhali, and Padma rivers in the Barishal, Bhola, Patuakhali, Shariatpur,
Chandpur, and Lakshmipur districts.
Despite the ban, hilsa was
available in the markets, though in very small volumes. The fish was selling at
Tk 650–900 per kg depending on the size. Shrimp of different sizes and quality
were retailing at Tk 500–1,000 per kg and pabda at Tk 500–850 yesterday.
Also on the rise is the cost of
rice. Prices have increased by at least Tk 2–3 per kg, depending on the
variety. Rice traders alleged that rice mill owners have increased the prices
through syndication despite adequate supply of paddy in the markets.
The retail price of the fine
variety of Miniket went up by Tk 2–3 per kg to Tk 55–60, while the coarse
variety sold for Tk 50–52 per kg. The Swarna variety was selling for Tk 35–36
per kg and BR28 for Tk 38–40 in kitchen markets yesterday.
While supplies of early summer
vegetables have increased, their prices are yet to decline.
Traders said the prices will fall
over the next couple of weeks until the early summer crops hit the market in
full swing. Bitter gourd, for example, was quite expensive at Tk 130 per kg.
The price of broiler chicken also
increased by Tk 10 per kg over the week. The going rate was Tk 120–130 per kg
yesterday.
Local varieties were selling for
Tk 450 per kg.
Beef was selling for Tk 550–570
per kg yesterday, while mutton retailed at Tk 750–800 per kg. Farm egg prices,
however, had dropped to Tk 90–100 per dozen, down from Tk 100–110 a month back.
Faisal Anis named FPCCI
body’s deputy convener
By RECORDER REPORT on March 7, 2020
President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and
Industry (FPCCI), Anjum Nisar has appointed Faisal Anis Majeed as a Deputy
Convener of FPCCI Central Standing Committee on “RICE" for the year 2020.
Faisal Anis Majeed's appointment notification has been issued. Faisal is a rice
exporter and active member of Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP).
Ali Jahangir says he tried to allay US concerns over CPEC
WASHINGTON: Pakistan is committed
to documenting its economy, tax collection and having prudent fiscal
management, said Ali Jahangir Siddiqui, Ambassador-at-Large for foreign
investment.
Addressing at an event at the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a local distinguished think tank,
Ambassador Siddiqui raised points to understand opportunities for American
business and growth in trade between the US and Pakistan.
The event titled, “Is Pakistan open
to American business” was held here on Thursday. Both the US and Pakistani
governments have identified expanding trade and investment ties as a necessary
step to improve bilateral relations, but Pakistan’s close relationship with
China has also sparked concern in the United States. Ambassador Siddiqui
offered key areas of investment while highlighting CPEC related broad-based
investment opportunities.
He informed the audience that
Pakistan has been transparent about the CPEC projects. He pointed out that
project details that upgrade infrastructure are available on public forums
while American companies such as GE and IFC have been interested in CPEC
related projects.
Siddiqui underscored that Pakistan
has been ranked higher than before in ease of doing business just because in
the last one year the government worked tirelessly to resolve issues and offer
a “one window” solutions.
Presenting the case for investment
in the agriculture sector, Ambassador Siddiqui argued that the US companies
should bring technology to the country. He presented the case that in last few
years Pakistan’s corn production went up dramatically. He mentioned that Agro
yields in wheat, rice and cotton have the similar potential to grow through new
technology.
“We would hope for a much broader
partnership,” Siddiqui said adding that Pakistan and the US are looking for a
relationship that goes beyond economics as well. He mentioned partnership in
education sector, cultural exchange and contributions on expats as many
elements in the relationship. Siddiqui said that Pakistan has made significant
progress in FATF compliance. The country, he said, is on a typical pathway to coming
off the grey list.
Pakistan
Eager To Trade With Jamaica - I Will Strongly Push For A Head-Of-State Visit –
High Commissioner Khan
Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Jamaica, Asad Khan.
If Pakistan High Commissioner to Jamaica Dr Asad Khan has his
way, Jamaica could shortly be on the list of countries for the next visit by
President Arif Alvi or Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Hours after his credentials were accepted by Jamaica’s Foreign
Minister Kamina Johnson Smith, an excited Khan said despite the small
population of his countrymen and women here, Jamaica is a welcomed addition to
the number of countries sharing diplomatic relations with Pakistan.
“I will strongly push for that,
but failing that, we can actually start off with ministerial exchanges. Seeing
is believing. Until I arrived here, I didn’t have as clear an idea of the
potential you have here. Similarly, like looking at Pakistan from a distance,
persons are influenced by the stereotypes that you get from the media. So
that’s where I believe we should start, with high-level political exchanges,” Khan
told The Gleaner on Monday.
Pakistan, with the world’s fifth-largest population, and
Jamaica, with about six million on island and in the diaspora, are a perfect
fit, said Dr Khan during an interview.
Opportunities for trade, cultural and sporting collaboration, as
well as high-level political exchanges, will be atop his list of priority
achievements.
The Washington-based Khan is ambassador to the United States,
but high commissioner to Jamaica, being a Commonwealth country. Wearing both
caps is not unique to him in his country’s foreign service.
“I think there is a lot to do in
Jamaica ... I was looking at our trade statistics and it is far too low. Far
below the actual potential, and that’s what I would like to work on, but not
merely to create one-way streams. Basically, to create win-win for both
countries,” Khan told The Gleaner.
Jamaica’s appetite for foreign goods appears to be one of the
doors of entry for cementing diplomatic relations.
Jamaica’s imports from Pakistan was US$1.62 million during 2017,
according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade
updated in 2020. Man-made staple fibres, sugars, and confectionery, as well as
cotton, were the top imports.
There are no available statistics on imports from Jamaica by
Pakistan.
NO EXPORTS FROM PAKISTAN
Currently, Jamaica exports nothing to Pakistan, but goods made
in that country have found its way here via exports from other countries. With
its vast exports of rice, cotton, textiles and sugar, Jamaicans could see that
product on the shelves, given the near-death local sugar industry which became
non-competitive when preferential pricing was discontinued by Europe.
However, trade is not the only platform on which Khan hopes to
build bridges.
“On the education side, we both
come from the traditional British system, so we already have a lot in common
there. What we don’t have are high-level political exchanges. High-level visits
from either side helps to sensitise both countries to systems and
bureaucracies, and pushes greater cooperation,” Khan told The Gleaner.
“The mainstay of our exports is textiles. We are also a major
exporter of rice, sugar, cotton. These are the traditional ones, but you have a
very strong sporting industry and you produce world-class quality of sports
goods and I see opportunities there,” he expressed with delight, stressing
Jamaica’s prowess in the sporting industry, especially in track and field
Pakistan produces 35,000 information technology experts per year
and some have been hired by companies operating here, he said proudly, stating
that the area is also another avenue for collaboration.
Both countries have collaborated at the multinational level.
“We have a history of cooperation at the United Nations and in
the multinational forums. I was in New York with our Permanent Mission to the
UN and we used to collaborate very closely with Jamaica, very closely as
members of the Group of 77. So it’s not about numbers or size. It’s about
things that we can do together,” he stressed.
An action plan is to be drafted
by his office to provide the basis for more definitive cooperation, Khan
told The Gleaner.
Local
rice producer eyes export of ultra premium brand
Star
)
- March 6, 2020 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Rice
processing firm Chen Yi Agventures Inc. plans to start exporting its high
quality rice brand to Asia or the Middle East this year.
Chen Yi Agventures president
Rachel Renucci-Tan said in a briefing the firm is currently in talks with
different countries for the export of rice.
“We’re looking at one to two but
large export markets,” she said, noting these countries are in Asia and the
Middle East.
She said exports could begin
within the year.
Chen Yi Agventures is the company
behind ultra premium rice brand Dalisay.
Last year, the firm won Third
Best Rice at the World Rice Conference for Dalisay Rice, marking the first time
the Philippines was recognized as a world class producer of rice.
Vietnam was declared the World’s
Best Rice Winner last year.
Chen Yi Agventures has invested
P1.7 billion in a rice processing center in Leyte which uses end-to-end
Japanese technology.
Through the use of Japanese
technology, the firm is able to ensure the rice is always fresh.
For the production of Dalisay
Rice, the company is implementing a program which involves organizing farmers
by providing low interest loans, as well as high quality fertilizers,
pesticides, high yielding inbred seeds, as well as high-tech planting and
harvesting equipment.
Farmers under the program have
seen their yield increase two to three times and their income rise by over 10
times.
The firm’s rice processing center
currently produces 100 tons of rice per month, based on orders made by
retailers and restaurants.
At full capacity, the rice
processing center’s output can reach 50,000 tons in a year.
Dalisay Rice, launched just last
year, is currently being sold online, as well as in more than 150 supermarkets
in Metro Manila such as SM, Robinsons, Rustan’s, Shopwise, Landmark, Metro
Supermarket, Cash and Carry, Unimart and Puregold.
For a two-kilogram bag, Dalisay
Rice retails for P170 to P174.
Tan said the company expects to
have Dalisay Rice available in more than 180 supermarkets within the month.
There has been good market
reception for Dalisay Rice as it is often sold out in supermarkets.
Dalisay Rice is also being used
in 50 restaurants across Metro Manila.
Patrick Francois Renucci, co-founder
and senior management consultant at Chen Yi Agventures, attributed the warm
reception of the product to the market’s understanding of the importance of
consuming good quality food.
As its name implies, Tan said
Dalisay Rice is pure as the company is the only producer in the country that
doesn’t use cheap palay (unmilled rice) or poor quality palay.
“We don’t mix imported rice.
We’re the only one that maintains one to two varieties at most and we don’t
spray chemicals,” she said.
