APTERR

Asean Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve 

What is APTERR?

The ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR) is regional cooperation established under the APTERR Agreement signed by the Ministers of the Agriculture and Forestry of the ASEAN Plus Three at the 11^th Meeting of the ASEAN Minister on Agriculture and Forestry Plus Three (AMAF+3) on 7 October 2011 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The APPTERR Council is the executive board comprising one representative from each member and acts as the governing body of the APTERR. In the meantime, the APTERR Secretariat was established to play a crucial role in facilitating and coordinating the APTERR mechanism.

The APTERR Secretariat is headed by the General Manager (GM) to be appointed by the APTERR Council. The activities and implementation programmes of the APTERR Secretariat are required to report to the APTERR Council. The office space of the APTERR Secretariat is an in-kind contribution by the Government of Thailand based at the Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE), Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC), Bangkok, Thailand.

The APTERR Secretariat is financially supported by the APTERR Fund contributed by the APTERR Parties. The APTERR Fund comprised the Endowment Fund (EF), which is the capital contribution for long-term financial support, and the annual contribution to the Operational Cost (OC) utilised to support the operation and activities of the APTERR.

Objectives

The main objectives of the APTERR are to strengthen food security, poverty alleviation, and malnourishment eradication among its members without distorting normal trade, while the common goal of the APTERR Parties is the assurance of food security in the ASEAN+3 region.

APTERR Stockpiles

To accomplish its common goal, the APTERR Parties agreed to establish the APTERR stocks consisting of Earmarked Emergency Rice Reserves and Stockpiled Emergency Rice Reserves contributed by each member country to aid victims in the time of adversity. Rice reserves under the APTERR must be fit for human consumption based on international food safety standards.

• Earmarked Emergency Rice Reserves are specific quantities of milled rice, which are voluntarily designated and controlled by the government of the earmarking country, for the purpose of the meeting emergency requirements of one or more APTERR member countries.

The earmarked stocks total 787,000 tonnes, comprising 87,000 tonnes from the ASEAN member countries and 700,000 tonnes from the Plus Three countries. The breakdown of the earmarked quantity of each APTERR member countries is as follows;

• Stockpiled Emergency Rice Reserves are rice voluntarily donated to the APTERR in the form of cash (termed stockpiled cash) and/or physical rice stocks (termed stockpiled rice) which are owned collectively by the APTERR member countries and managed by the APTERR Secretariat under the supervision of the APTERR Council. Such a stockpiled emergency rice reserve is used as an emergency stock to provide preparedness for an emergency situation, and constitutes another component of the APTERR.

APTERR Programmes

Corresponding with specific distinctions of emergencies, there are three APTERR programmes used for addressing;

• Tier 1 Programme

• • Tier 1 involves the release of earmarked emergency rice reserves under the pre-arrangement terms for anticipated emergencies.
  • Tier 1 is formalised as a forward contract, stating the specific quantity and grade of rice, pricing method, terms of payment and delivery, and other requirements between the supplying country and a recipient country.
  • Delivery of rice from the supplying country will be made in the event of emergency in the recipient country with payment based on prevailing international market price.
  • The amount of rice under the forward contract is based on an estimate of shortfall in the event of emergency over the medium term.

• Tier 2 Programme   

• • Tier 2 involves the release of earmarked emergency rice reserves under other agreement for unanticipated emergencies not addressed by Tier 1.
  • Delivery follows an on-the-spot agreement between the supplying country and the recipient country.
  • Pricing is similar to Tier 1, which payment can be made in cash or through long-term loan or grant based on mutual agreement of the countries involved.

• Tier 3 Programme

• • Tier 3 involves the release of stockpiled emergency rice reserves under the contribution for severe emergencies and humanitarian responses, such as poverty alleviation and malnourishment eradication, to ensure food security in the region.
  • Rice distribution under Tier 3 can be the fast track to assistance under automatic trigger.