A difficult rice balancing act but it can be done

Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Sat, 23 Nov 2019 16:15:09 +0000

PRESIDENT Duterte said Tuesday night he had ordered the suspension of the importation of cheap rice and the purchase instead of local farmers’ production during the current harvest season. It does not matter if the government will lose billions, he said, as he asked Congress to appropriate the needed funds.

The very next day, however, he announced after a meeting with Secretary of Agriculture William Dar that rice importation under the provisions of the Rice Tariffication Law will not be stopped, to ensure that rice prices remain low for Filipino consumers.

The conflicting decisions within a matter of 24 hours reflect the very difficult balancing act that the government has to carry out on this basic need of the people.

When the President thought last Tuesday that he should help the nation’s farmer, he said: “Lugi tayo ng R3 billion. Why? So the farmers can live. Who will shoulder it? All of us.”

The next day, after a meeting with Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, the President said the importation of cheap rice must continue, to ensure that there will be enough rice for the nation’s consumers. The President may have been reminded of the crisis of high prices last year, when the inflation rate hit 6.7 percent in September, and the rising prices were stopped only when the Rice Tariffication Law was hurriedly passed, allowing unlimited importation of cheap rice.

The unimpeded entry of cheap rice, mostly from Vietnam and Thailand, has since forced rice prices – and subsequently all other market prices – down. Data from the Bureau of Plant Industry shows that 1.7 million tons of rice have already entered the country since last March. By the end of the year, the Philippines will have imported 4.4 million tons, making us the world’s top rice importer, beating even China, the world’s most populous nation.

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