Desite the ongoing drought in parts of the country, the Philippine Department of Agriculture has said that it remains hopeful of achieving its rice production target of 16.2 million MT.

The drought has already prompted the National Food Authority, a state-owned grains trading firm, to schedule a buy tender on Sept. 7 for 260,000 MT of the grain.
 
A major importer of rice in Asia, the Philippines has already contracted to buy 1.61 million MT of rice so far this year.