Philippine Asian News Today Vol 20 no 19 | Page 11

October 1 -15, 2018
BUSINESS NEWS
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY
Retailers to be allowed to directly import rice
For the first time ever, the
government will allow grains retailers
to directly import rice, which could
effectively reduce the cost of rice to
be sold in the local markets.
This was according to Agriculture
Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, who
dismissed the possibility that more
imports could further dampen the
price of locally produced rice.
“You have to understand that the
President has directive to have a
60-day buffer stock. If the imported
supply enters the country, let it be. We
will not forget about the farmers. We
will still buy their produce. We have the
budget for it,” Piñol said on Tuesday.
The suggestion to allow grains
retailers to directly import rice was
brought up by Piñol during his meeting
with the members of the Grains
Retailers Confederation (GRECON)
the other day.
The grains retailers were particularly
asked to group themselves and directly
import rice, which they could sell at a
lower price in the market.
Piñol said there would be no cap as to
how much a retailer could import. But
since the country is also anticipating
the importation of additional 1.1
million metric tons (MT) of rice —
which will be conducted separately
by National Food Authority (NFA) and
retailers that will be accredited by the
Department of Trade and Industry
(DTI) — the ideal amount that
GRECON members can import would
be around 50,000 MT to 100,000 MT
of rice.
Right now, the government is
determined to procure more “palay”
from local farmers, allotting an
additional budget of nearly P7 billion
to buy more than 2 million bags of
palay in the span of two months.
A latest data from Philippine
Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that
palay production for July to September
2018 may fall to 3.25 million MT, 2.3
percent below the July 2018 round
estimate of 3.32 million MT and 4.2
percent lower than the previous year’s
output of 3.39 million MT.
Harvest area may also decline by
3.4 percent from 852.63 thousand
hectares level in 2017, while yield per
hectare may fall to 3.94 MT from 3.98
MT.
“The effect of southwest monsoon
or ‘Habagat’ in July, enhanced by
typhoons ‘Henry’, ‘Inday’ and ‘Josie’
during the reproductive and maturing
stages of the crop may cause the
probable drop in palay production in
most provinces of Northern Luzon.
Bulk of the decrement may come
from Nueva Ecija,” PSA said. (M.B.
Miraflor, mb.com)
Network unplugs mobile
business next month
ABS-CBN Corp. yesterday said it
will officially end the operation of its
mobile business by November this
year for failing to achieve profitability
after five years.
ABS-CBNmobile prepaid, postpaid
and SkyMobi subscribers will continue
to enjoy text, call and data services
until November 30.
ABS-CBN
unit
ABS-CBN
Convergence and Ayala-led Globe
Telecom have agreed not to renew
their five-year mobile network sharing
contract which expired in June this
year.
“After a thorough assessment,
ABS-CBN Convergence deemed its
current mobile business model to be
financially unsustainable. As a result,
ABS-CBN Convergence and Globe
have reached an agreement not to
renew their mobile network sharing
contract,” ABS-CBN said in a filing at
the Philippine Stock Exchange.
ABS-CBN partnered with Globe to
deliver mobile services nationwide
using Globe’s infrastructure. ABS-
CBN is paying the telco on a wholesale
rate for the use of its servers, towers
and switches.
ABS-CBN has invested P3 billion as
working capital in the first three years
of operation of its mobile venture for
back room support, billing system
and customer services.
The company aimed to have at
least 2 million mobile subscribers to
break even, but it only had 930,000
11
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R1.00 SAR = P 14.38
¥1.00 JPY= P 0.48
subscribers by end-2016 and almost
the same in 2017, before dropping
further this year due to competition.
ABS-CBN’s digital and interactive
media segment – composed of online,
mobile and over-the-top business –
reported a net loss of P441 million in
2017, lower than its net loss of P634
million in 2016.
Despite the contract termination,
ABS-CBN and Globe are exploring new
ways and synergies that complement
their business models.
The two companies continue to
bank on their competencies and
focus on new synergies to serve
their customers better, such as the
promotional bundling of ABS-CBN
TVplus boxes with Globe At Home
prepaid WiFi and making ABS-CBN
TVplus’ KBO (Kapamilya Box Office)
and iWantv over-the- top services
available to all Globe subscribers.
ABS-CBN Convergence thanked
its loyal subscribers and vowed to
provide updates on their plans and
subscriptions.
It also said all ABS-CBNmobile and
SKYmobi promo offers will no longer
be offered to subscribers effective
October 25, 2018.
ABS-CBN Convergence, formerly
Multi-Media Telephony Inc., has a
congressional franchise to operate
mobile and broadband services
nationwide that is set to expire by
2020. (Malaya)
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