First batch of rice from Thailand, Vietnam arrives
THE Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) said on Thursday that at least 12,417 metric tons (MT) of imported rice arrived in the country, the first batch for this year, noting that the importation of the staple grain in 2022 reached 3.8 million metric tons (MMT).
The BPI reported that the shipment of rice arrived on Jan. 5, 2023, with 6,500 metric tons from Thailand and 5,917 metric tons from Vietnam covered by nine sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances.
The BPI said that the country’s total rice import of 3,826,238 MT in 2022 was more than 1.05 MMT or 28 percent bigger than the 2.8 MMT in 2021.
It was more than double the 1.857 M