Nueva Ecija: The Philippines registered the biggest improvement in rice production in Asia, according to recent world market data.
Citing records from the World Market and Trade of the United States Department of Agriculture, Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) executive director Eufemio Rasco Jr said yesterday that the Philippines, which posted a 97-percent rice self-sufficiency status last year, registered a 4.04 percent average increase in milled rice production from 2010 to 2013.
The country produced 10.99m metric tonnes of milled rice, up from 9.77m metric tonnes produced in 2011.
With this development, the Philippines surpassed major rice exporters including China and India, which showed an improvement of only 1.55 and 3.77 percent in milled rice production, respectively.
Thailand, a leading rice exporter, only posted a .39 percent difference.
Tom Slayton, former editor of The Rice Trader and co-author of an article on how rice price crisis could be prevented from becoming a crisis of hunger, noted that the Philippines — a key importer in the world rice trade — posted zero imports during the last two years.
Bangladesh recorded a .25 difference in imports from 2012 to 2013, while China, although one of the largest rice producers in the world, registered a .10 difference.
The Philippine star
US: No double standards in our travel advisories
MANILA: A top US diplomat in the Philippines said the US state department has no “double standards” rule in declaring travel advisories.
Ambassador Philip Goldberg said the State Department is objective in making travel warnings for a particular region and area for the safety of the general public and US citizens. “We try to be as specific as possible,” Goldberg said during the first “Ask the Ambassador Google Hangout” on Friday.
In the case of Mindanao, he explained that there are certain areas that are more problematic than others. “But sometimes it looks as though the whole is the same. But what we have said is that people are to take precautions in travelling to Mindanao,” he said.
In April 2013, Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Cuisia Jr urged the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) members to help the Philippines convince the State Department to reconsider the travel warning issued against the Philippines that placed the country in the category of dangerous nations.
Cuisia said it was “ironic” that the Philippines was placed by the US government in the category of North Korea, Somalia, Pakistan, South Sudan, Mali and Haiti upon the recommendation of the US embassy in Manila.
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