P500 million rice imports stalled in Port of Manila

MANILA, Philippines —  Half a billion pesos worth of rice is sitting at the Port of Manila, waiting to be picked up by their importers, making the government worry that this may cause an artificial increase in consumer prices.

Based on records from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), more than 700 shipping containers of rice are waiting to be taken out of the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) and the Manila South Harbor.

Estimates showed that these rice imports might be worth over P555 million, based on the capacity of the containers and the volume inside.

Jay Santiago, PPA general manager, is not discounting the possibility that rice traders are intentionally holding on to the shipments at the ports because they are waiting for rice prices in the market to increase.

Santiago said the rice shipments have been at the MICT and South Harbor for over 20 days now, even if the containers have already been cleared by the Bureau of Customs, meaning they can be withdrawn from the ports any time.

Santiago is concerned that keeping the rice imports at MICT and South Harbor longer may hurt the supply of the staple in the Philippines, which could lead to an artificial shortage in the market, pushing retail prices up to the detriment of consumers.

“We measure the containers on the basis of 20-foot equivalent, and per TEU can handle 540 sacks of rice weighing 50 kilograms per sack,” Santiago told The STAR.

He denied speculations that port congestion is causing a delay in the unloading of grain shipments.

Santiago said the PPA-regulated ports have recorded a utilization rate of 70 percent and consignees withdraw shipments other than rice within an average of 5.4 days. Notably, this is one of the lowest dwell times in PPA history and is just 0.4 days above the free storage period of five days.

“This means that many of the container vans have been released once their free storage period has lapsed, except for some containers with rice as its cargo that have remained in the container yard for more than 20 days, even after they have already gotten clearance from the Bureau of Customs (BOC). As a result, there is a delay in the delivery of rice and a possible artificial increase of its price,” Santiago explained.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. earlier said it takes more than a week for rice shipments to be released from ports, adding that importers would have to pay a demurrage of as much as $7,000 per ship per day for these delays – creating a risk that this cost might be passed on to consumers.

“We are thankful that the PPA has acted promptly on the information we provided and recognized the potential issue of hoarding of imported rice in Manila ports… We respectfully urge the PPA to prioritize the movement of these rice stocks to help increase supply for this essential food staple and potentially lower retail prices,” Tiu Laurel said.

Santiago said consignees might be deliberately delaying the withdrawal of imported rice in anticipation of higher market prices.