Rice imports fall 35% in first two months

The country's rice imports in the first two months plunged by almost 35 percent on an annual basis to a little over 500,000 metric tons, the Bureau of Plant Industry said.

- By JASPER EMMANUEL ARCALAS

BPI data showed that rice imports from January to February reached 504,726 MT, at least 266,000 MT lower than the 770,846 MT recorded in the same two-month period last year.

Vietnam, the country's top rice supplier, accounted for 73 percent of the imported volume during the two-month period. The Philippines imported 370,908 MT of rice from Vietnam.