THE Department of Agriculture (DA) yesterday recommended the importation of an additional 500,000 metric tons (MT) of rice to cover crop losses expected to be brought about by the El Niño weather phenomenon between November this year and January 2024.
In a House briefing on the rice production and supply situation in the country, Agriculture Undersecretary Mercedita Sombilla said rice production slows down every December and the inventory goes down as the production period approaches.
Sombilla noted that some 200,000 hectares of rice area might be affected by the El Niño, resulting in production loss of an estimated 500,000 MT of rice.
The recommended importation volume is on top of the earlier approved rice purchases by private traders this year: the 300,000 MT expected to arrive later this month, and another 300,000 MT in September, coming mostly from Vietnam.
“That’s why we’re recommending around 500,000 metric tons to arrive between November and January so that we would be ensured of sufficient supply during that time,” Sombilla told the House Committee on Agriculture and Food.
Sombillo has said the department’s projected ending stock for 2023 is 1.96 million metric tons (MMT) which is good for 52 days, while Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) projection of 2.12 MMT would last for 57 days.
Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, chair of the House committee on ways and means, said both “immediate and long-term solutions” to increase rice supply are needed to address hunger in non-rice producing communities in the Philippines, particularly the National Capital Region (NCR), where self-reported hunger increased from 10.7 percent in March to 15.7 percent in June 2023, according to the Social Weather Stations (SWS).
“That is 700,000 people more who were hungry, because NCR is very sensitive to higher import prices. They do not produce any rice,” Salceda said after the DA warned that imported rice is set to become more expensive than retail prices in the coming weeks.
Salceda asked Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian if he considers a 12 percent rice supply deficit “as food security” to which Sebastian responded in the negative.
In response to Salceda’s call, the DA said that they are pushing for a “shift in focus of planting season from the wet season to the dry season” which starts in November.
Salceda said this might require “more irrigation facilities as just around 8 percent of our total land area, out of 18 percent arable land is actually irrigated.”
He also broached the possibility of reviewing and amending the Rice Tariffication Law.
“Since the six-year period for the mandatory review of the Rice Tariffication Law takes place next year, we may need to review the programs under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF),” he said.
Sebastian said that boosting farmer incomes through higher farmgate prices could also incentivize farmers to make the right investments in fertilizers, seeds, machinery, and other factors.
Salceda said he will push for the conduct of the review of RCEF programs by the Congressional Oversight Committee on Agricultural and Fisheries Modernization (COCAFM) earlier “since there are obviously areas where we allocated more, such as machinery, but can be adjusted already given emerging needs.”
“The RCEF programs are very supply-side. So, we might even consider shifting the RCEF monies towards a price support for domestic rice produced. That way, the incentive is behavioral. If you produce more, we buy more from you,” he said.
Farm groups criticized the government’s plan to resolve the current rice supply scare with a possible fast tracking of imports.
The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said DA’s proposal for a faster lane on rice importation is equivalent to “the total abandonment of the local rice industry.”
In a briefing on the rice situation before the House Committee on Agriculture, DA officials cited the need to augment rice stocks with imports during the lean months and in preparation of the effects of El Nino.
“The imported rice that will be imported from August to September will arrive during the harvest season by October and its instant effect is a drop in palay prices of our farmers,” said Danilo Ramos, KMP chairperson, in a statement.
Meanwhile, Rafael Mariano, KMP chairperson emeritus, said that instead of reversing the rice planting calendar, the DA and the National Irrigation Administration should instead work hard to expand domestic irrigated rice lands in the country apart from the prepositioning of support such as fertilizers and production subsidies, among others.
On the other hand, Bantay Bigas said that the government must abide with its promise to focus on increasing local production.
Cathy Estavillo, Bantay Bigas spokesperson, said that the DA is seeking an additional rice importation despite President Marcos Jr.’s directive to the National Food Authority (NFA) to prioritize local rice production over imports.
Bantay Bigas claims that for the first half of the year, the NFA has only procured 0.31 percent or 27,838.65 MT of the 9 million MT palay locally produced in the same period.
“NFA’s reason is that traders buy them at a higher price so, there is really a need to increase palay buying prices not lower than P20 per kg and directly purchase in communities of farmers and not through traders,” Estavillo said.
Bantay Bigas said that NFA’s proposed budget for next year is at P9 billion which could procure 450,000 MT of palay at P20 per kilo.
President Marcos Jr., who is the concurrent DA secretary, last week assured the public that the country has sufficient supply of rice to meet demands even after the El Niño weather phenomenon next year.
The President as quoted by a news release from the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) yesterday, again assured the public that there is enough rice supply, adding that the government is closely working with the private sector to rationalize the prices and availability of affordable rice in the market and in Kadiwa stores.
“Rice supply is sufficient. Prices are, however, very variable. The government is working with the private sector to rationalize the prices and make available affordable rice in the market and in Kadiwa,” the PCO said, quoting the President who convened on Tuesday a sectoral meeting with the DA, National Food Authority (NFA), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC), among others.
Agriculture Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban, citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, reported that the palay output from January to June 2023 of this year rose to 9 MMT from 8.7 MMT during the same period last year and in 2021.
Panganiban said the output is higher than what the DA earlier projected.
The President welcomed the production increase as an “excellent news,” adding that it is a big boost to the country’s rice supply which is already sufficient until the end of the year even after the onslaught of super typhoon Egay in the North.
Sebastian said the 9 MMT palay is equivalent to 5.9 MMT milled rice.
“With the 3 percent production growth in the first semester, we can expect that, barring the occurrence of destructive typhoons, the production for 2023 could surpass 20 MMT,” Sebastian said.
He said the country’s rice production is expected to continue to grow with the good palay price in the previous cropping and the provision of various interventions provided by the DA to the farmers such as seeds, fertilizers, biofertilizers, soil ameliorants, and farm machinery extension support.
During Tuesday’s sectoral meeting, the President ordered the DA and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to closely monitor the prices of rice in different markets in the country as he vowed to go after rice hoarders and price manipulators who are taking advantage of the lean months before the harvest season that are contributing to the reported increase of prices.
The DA reported that retailers are selling rice at different price points, with some selling rice at P38 to P50 per kilo as the cheapest.
Based on public markets monitoring by the DA in the National Capital Region as of yesterday, the per kg price of imported rice range from P50 to P65 for special variety, P47 to P53 for premium and P45 for well milled. No data is available on the price of regular milled.
For local rice, special variety is at P51 to P60 per kg, premium at P45 to P56 per kg, well-milled at P40 to P52 per kg, and regular milled at P38 to P50 per kg.
The Integrated Rural Development Foundation (IRDF) expressed concerns over the recent unabated increase in rice prices in the country, which it said was mainly due to price hikes in the international market attributed by analysts to India’s policy to curb its rice exports and the recent impact of massive flooding in China that have extensively damaged its rice lands.
“The knee jerk reaction of domestic rice prices to international shocks simply reflects the lack of government control on local rice trade and the incapacity of the NFA to stabilize local prices. With its function reduced to mere buffer stocking under the Rice Trade Liberalization Law, the NFA could not go after unscrupulous rice traders that may have already started hoarding in anticipation of higher prices as domestic supply further tightens,” said Arze Glipo, IRDF executive director.
The group also said the current situation calls for increased government intervention in the rice market rather than allowing private rice importers to secure domestic rice supply.
IRDF recommended the prioritization of farm subsidies to farmers affected by the Rice Tariffication Law to increase palay yield to 22 million tons and ensure rice self-sufficiency, without having to depend on rice importation.
The group also batted for the need to provide fertilizer subsidies at a minimum of 60 percent of the total quantity needed by each farmer apart from the repair and maintenance of irrigation systems.
IRDF said farmer cooperatives or associations should also be allowed to import fertilizer directly from international market suppliers with government guarantee to ensure cheaper prices. — With Jocelyn Montemayor and Jed Macapagal
