Rice self-sufficiency not achievable
Credit to Author: EIREENE JAIREE GOMEZ| Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2019 16:19:39 +0000
THE Philippines stands to miss its goal of achieving 100-percent rice self-sufficiency given the liberalization of imports, a Cabinet official warned on Thursday.
Breaking from the official line, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol told reporters that the Rice Tarrification Act, which replaces quantitative restrictions on imports of the staple, would discourage farmers from growing rice and thus lead to lower output.
“You have to understand that huge volumes of imported rice would be coming in. It would be foolish for us to target a 100-percent sufficiency when we know that cheaper imported rice would be coming in,” he said in a press conference.
“[I]t would be foolish for us to still encourage our farmers to target 100-percent. Where do we sell our excess rice when we can’t compete pricing against imported rice?”.
Piñol, who had set a 2018 target to achieve rice self-sufficiency, said “we may have to be contented with just 93-percent where we are right not because the inflow of imported rice may affect the prices of rice in the market and further dampen the buying price of palay.”
At current production levels, the country still needs to import about 600,000 to 800,000 metric tons (MT) of rice to satisfy domestic needs.
The Rice Tariffication Act, which will take effect March 5, will allow private traders to apply for unlimited importations of the grain as long as they secure the necessary permits and pay the proper duties, set at 35 percent for rice sourced from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) neighbors.
A 40-percent tariff will be levied on shipments sourced from non-Asean countries within the minimum access volume of 350,000 MT, going up to 180 percent for out-quota imports.
The government has said that rice tariffication would bring down prices of the staple and Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno has even proposed that the country import all of its rice needs and that rice farmers shift to growing high-value crops.
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