MANILA, 24 March 2008 — The Department of Agriculture is encouraging rice-consuming Filipinos to save every precious grain and eat brown rice amid increasing global demand for rice.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said that brown rice is healthier and more nutritious than white rice.
Citing studies, the National Food Administration (NFA) also reported that brown rice is a rich source of dietary fiber and is a healthier alternative for people suffering from diabetes, obesity and heart-related ailments. Brown rice also has both preventive and curative properties for cancer, it added.
Brown rice, or pinawa in Tagalog, is the unpolished whole rice grain produced by removing only the hull or its outermost layer. It is a lot cheaper than white rice and costs P18 up to P25 a kilogram. Prevailing market prices have white rice at P26 up to P40 per kg.
According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, brown rice is also an excellent source of manganese and the minerals selenium and magnesium.
Its research showed that one cup of brown rice provides 88 percent of the daily value for manganese, the trace mineral that helps produce energy from protein and carbohydrates. Manganese is also involved in the synthesis of fatty acids that are important for a healthy nervous system, and in the production of cholesterol that is used by the body to produce sex hormones.
Yap earlier urged fast food chains such as Jollibee, McDonald’s and Chowking to sell one half cup-rice instead of the usual one cup to avoid wastage.
The Food and Nutrition Research Survey revealed that Filipinos waste a total of 300,000 tons of rice annually that come from a tablespoonful of rice for each citizen everyday. This is translated to 23 million pesos worth of rice wasted daily, say officials. Filipinos consume a total of 33 million kg of rice everyday.
Yap assured consumers of a stable supply of rice in the months ahead, noting that the country has ample buffer reserves of this staple equivalent to stocks lasting for almost two months.
But he added that rising demand for rice worldwide dictates that the Philippines should start preparing for a crisis. Demand from the Middle East and Africa for rice have raised current prices of the staple in Vietnam and Thailand — the world’s two biggest rice exporters — to $480 and $500 per metric ton, or a 25 percent jump from month-ago prices.
A World Bank study also showed that food prices have increased by about 75 percent since 2000. Furthermore, a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report noted that 36 countries — of which nine are in Asia (excluding the Philippines), two in Europe, 21 in Africa and four in Latin America — now require external assistance to cope with worsening food supply problems.
Yap said the NFA must continue to prudently manage the rice stocks, rice production must continue to rise and conservation measures must be put in place since a rice supply problem does exist in the world market.
“Due to high crude oil cost which has made transport and fertilizer cost rise sharply, and the effects of climate change in rice production areas, global rice stocks are tight. It is not a question of price anymore but a question of supply. You may have the money but there are no rice supplies to buy.”
Yap said that the International Rice Research Institute had earlier pointed out this rice “price distortion.” The cost of rice doubled from $200 per ton five years ago to almost $400 million at the start of 2008. Since then, the rising global demand has pushed world market prices to over $500 a ton, excluding freight costs.
