During the past weekend has been made a rice inventory in the mills of Panama to determine if country´s rice reserves are sufficient to cover national consumption at least during four months and half.

According to the preliminary numbers of the inventory there are almost 2 million cwt of rice in the warehouses and silos of the mills. The most important zones of production are in the provinces of Chiriquí and Veraguas, where there are 39 mills to process and to commercialize the cereal.

The domestic production together with the rice that the country will import in 2007 makes 1,6 million cwt, amount enough to satisfy the national demand. Panama consumes about 450,000 cwt monthly.