The government is now studying the early opening of what could possibly be the last private sector importation of rice under the minimum access volume this year, the Office of the Cabinet Secretary said on Thursday. “If there will be a need to import under the MAV scheme, this should be done before June 30. The Philippine has set a limit of 805,000 metric tons on rice under the MAV scheme. “About 600,000 metric tons of rice, through private sector importation, just starting to arrive,” Valdez said. Evasco noted unscrupulous traders and importers have used farmer cooperatives as dummies under the private sector rice importation scheme to corner the bulk of imports.

Source: Manila Times January 12, 2017 16:39 UTC