Phl to export 156-MT premium rice to Dubai

CEBU, Philippines - The Philippines expects to put its name on the global rice map as “Doña Maria” premium rice is set to be exported in October this year at 156 metric tons (MT) through one of world’s largest retailer, the French Carrefour.

In a statement, the SL Agritech Corp. (SLAC), producer of Doña Maria Jasponica and Miponica brown and white rice, said it is all set for a shipment of the Doña Maria hybrid rice for distribution in Carrefour retail chain in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

A separate 19.5 MT of Doña Maria rice will also be shipped to Los Angeles, California by October.

A famous supermarket chain, Carrefour is known to be the world’s second largest retail group in terms of revenue, the second in profit just next to Walmart and is the largest retail group in Europe.

The price, being set at $1,250 per MT, is expected to be attractive for the country’s foreign exchange receipt and for farmers tilling the hybrid rice. Price of regular milled rice hovers at just $500 to $550 per MT in the international market.

“DA (Department of Agriculture) will not allow you to export at less than $1,000 per metric ton. DA provided for us the opportunity to export rice when we shipped to Dubai for the first time (last May),” said SLAC Chairman Henry Lim Bon Liong.

The shipment through Carrefour involves eight containers of around 20 MT per container. At this rate of 160 MT per month for Dubai alone, yearly shipment could reach to 1,920 MT.

If this volume of export can become consistent, it will be more than enough for the Philippines to hit DA's earlier export target of 200 MT by 2014.

Moreover, the export volume for the Dubai and US markets are further hoped to increase. Its initial purchase order is for October to December arrival in Dubai.

“This is just for market penetration,” said Donna T. Lim, SLAC assistant vice president-supply chain.

The company has come up with a little different package for the Dubai market to attract Filipinos to patronize local farmers’ produce.

“Fifty percent (of the Dubai population) is Filipinos.  They’re eating rice that is imported from Thailand.  We did a little twist on our packaging to ask them to help support Filipino rice so they may support Filipino farmers,” said Lim.

For the export to Los Angeles, SLAC will be shipping through international trader Triple A.

The company also expects the distribution of Doña Maria through Carrefour to possibly reach other Asian and Middle East markets in the future.  These may include Qatar, Saudi Arabia, China, and Indonesia.

The international market has apparently developed an interest in Philippine rice as DA officially adopted a rice export strategy particularly for fancy rice.

DA facilitated shipment of an initial 35 MT to Dubai, 15 MT to Kuwait and Hong Kong, and 11.55 MT to Germany, Hong Kong, Macau, Canada, and the Netherlands.

SLAC accounted for the export of 20 MT of Doña Maria Jasponica and Miponica brown and white rice during the May shipment. /JMD (FREEMAN)