KARACHI: The Philippines has offered to import 50,000 tonnes of rice from Pakistan to help it meet its goal of importing an aggregate volume of 805,200 tonnes of rice under its minimum access volume (MAV) for this year.

The total import volume comprises 755,200 tonnes of country-specific quota (CSQ) and 50,000 tonnes of omnibus origin volume.

The CSQ is broken down as the following: China 50,000 tonnes, India 50,000 tonnes, Pakistan 50,000 tonnes, Australia 15,000 tonnes, El Salvador 4,000 tonnes, Thailand 293,100 tonnes and Vietnam 293,100 tonnes.

All rice imported under the 2015 MAV rice import programme shall be levied with a tariff of 35 per cent to be paid in advance to the Land Bank of Philippines and only well-milled rice with quality of at least 25pc “brokens” or other such special rice varieties will be imported.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2015

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