Panama importing rice to ensure supplies

The Advisory Committee for  rice production approved the import of 600 thousand quintals of grain to ensure supplies for  the country this year.

The container should be arriving from the United States within the first 15 days of July, and  will be added to the 2 million quintals of grain that were approved in late 2009, due to lagging crop production.

Producers, millers and the government approved the importation  as  a recent inventory showed that the  rice supply would only last until August this year.

Producers claim that this deficiency in production exposes the lack of efficient irrigation systems to allow safe production without exclusively depending on rainfall.