The Philippines government has decided to continue importing rice from the global market aggressively despite high prices as it seeks to build local inventories in preparation for possible weather-related calamities ahead of the rainy season.

According to Philippines Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, the Philippines is also set to revive talks with Thailand for a possible rice deal. 

The Philippines state-run National Food Authority on Monday scrapped a tender to buy the volume, saying it would wait for lower prices before coming back to the export market.

The Philippines still needs to import around 675,000 MT of rice as buffer stocks for the last quarter of the year.