Farmers urge gov’t to abandon planned rice importation

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The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) is urging the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) to already abandon its plan to import 300,000 metric tons (MT) of rice after the latter withheld the award of winning bids due to lack of a budgetary cover from the Department of Budget and Management to fund the importation.

FFF emphasized that under the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), the private sector was given the freedom to import unlimited volumes of rice and the PITC can only call for its own imports in the event of a rice supply shortage and only upon the issuance of a formal directive from the president.

“(Agriculture) Secretary (William) Dar has insisted time and again that we have enough rice. Therefore, there is no rice shortage and there is no reason why PITC should import rice. That is the law and Secretary Dar, who has repeatedly referred to the RTL as a good law, should be the first to follow it,” Raul Montemayor, the group’s national manager, said in a statement.

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He also claims that the likely real reason behind the push for PITC’s imports is the depletion of stocks from the National Food Authority (NFA) that were already released for relief operations during the COVID-19 lockdown which would limit the agency’s ability to stabilize prices during the lean months from July to September when rice prices historically go up.

“The RTL was very clear that buffer stocks should be kept in reserve and released only during calamities and emergencies. A provision in the implementing rules and regulations was inserted allowing for a roll-over system by which NFA could dispose of its old stocks and replenish them with new ones. The DA however went beyond the IRR’s intent by instructing the NFA in 2019 to flood the market with cheap NFA rice even though there was no crisis and there was already a glut in imports,” Montemayor further stated.

FFF also mentioned that the NFA failed to replenish its inventory during the dry season harvest early this year as buying prices of private traders increased while ignoring proposals to adjust its P19 per kilogram procurement price to entice farmers to sell to them instead.

“The DA, which oversees NFA operations, should have properly calibrated the releases of buffer stocks in accordance with the law, knowing that unforeseen calamities can suddenly arise and that it cannot replenish inventories when the harvest season ends… Maybe it was relying on the PITC imports all along,” Montemayor concluded.

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