BINALONAN, Dec 26: Well-stocked inventories would ensure adequate rice supplies in 2009, with no repeat of the crisis that struck the Philippines earlier this year, President Gloria Arroyo said on Friday.

Manila was the world’s largest importer of rice this year, when a dramatic spike in global cereal prices forced the government to boost food subsidies to ensure the poor did not go hungry.

“We expect to avoid a rice crisis in the coming year,” Arroyo told residents during a visit to the northern town of Binalonan, where she inspected a government grains silo.

She said expanded buying by the government to build up the monopoly state rice importer National Food Authority’s inventory, as well as increased government spending on irrigation projects and other farm infrastructure would boost the country’s rice stocks.—AFP