Philippine fast-food chains are to begin offering half servings of rice in a move to help the government ease demand for the staple and avert a possible shortage with global rice inventories sitting at 25-year lows. Jollibee Foods, the country's biggest restaurant chain, with more than 600 stores, said its operations managers were planning how to implement the plan.Its Chinese fast-food unit, Chowking, is set to offer half portions of rice from April 1. McDonald's is also considering serving half portions in more than 250 stores. McDonald's and Jollibee began by selling mostly hamburger sandwiches but some of their best-selling products now are meals eaten with rice, such as fried chicken, chicken fillets and breakfast sausages. Rice is considered the staple food for eight in 10 Filipinos, who eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In Chowking's 376 stores alone, customers consumed about 56 tonnes a day, said Jojo Ajero, marketing manager for Chowking. "Offering half servings of rice is not a big problem," he said. "It's just finding the right size for the rice scooper and distributing it in all the stores." The Philippines is the world's biggest rice importer and is struggling to buy the 1.8m-2.1m tonnes of rice needed to cover a production shortfall this year after big rice exporters such as Vietnam, Thailand and Australia began restricting foreign sales to keep their domestic markets well supplied amid falling output. Vietnam, which sold 1.4m tonnes last year to the Philippines, has initially said it can only supply 1m tonnes this year. In three auctions held between December and March, Manila received tenders for just two-thirds of the volumes it set out to buy. It has so far placed orders for 1.1m tonnes of rice, mostly from Vietnam, for delivery between March and April. The average price for the tenders surged almost 50 per cent, to $708 per tonne, compared with prices in the previous auction in January. Arthur Yap, agriculture secretary, said the government would continue to hold rice auctions until the import targets were met. Yesterday he announced that that the Vietnamese ambassador to Manila had assured him that Hanoi would try its best to supply 1.5m tonnes of rice. The US had also promised to provide 100,000 tonnes, he said. Officials urged fast-food chains to cut rice servings, usually 200g-250g each, after they noticed that customers often failed to finish the whole serving, causing about 1,250 tonnes of rice to go to waste every day. The agriculture department is also pushing for increased corn consumption by holding up a popular Filipino boxer, Manny Pacquiao, who won the World Boxing Council super-featherweight title in Las Vegas two weeks ago, as an icon for the benefits of eating corn instead of rice. Mr Pacquiao ate milled corn as he prepared for the fight and officials have claimed that gave him a competitive advantage.