DA urges free, fair rice trade
Credit to Author: Eireene Jairee Gomez| Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2019 18:25:25 +0000
THE Department of Agriculture (DA) on Tuesday urged the country’s rice industry stakeholders to uphold free and fair trade amid the negative perception on rice importation under Republic Act (RA) 11203 or the “Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).”
“It is true that under RTL, we encourage free trade primarily to lower the price of rice in the market. But let me also emphasize that we operate on the premise of fair trade, regardless of the volume that we are looking into. Our measures to ensure this has always been in place,” Agriculture Secretary William Dar said in a statement.
He clarified the seemingly abnormal influx of rice imports in the country for 2019.
Since the passage of RA 11203, Philippines’ rice imports only reached 1.87 million metric tons (MMT) from March to October this year, Dar said, citing reports from the Bureau of Customs (BOC).
The DA’s Bureau of Plant Industry, meanwhile, only accounted 2 MMT in the application for sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) Import Clearance or SPSIC for imported rice.
The 2.99-MMT imports reported by BOC, Dar said, reflects the total rice imports in the country for the year, even before the implementation of RA 11203.
“We need to keep rice production profitable and rice prices affordable to a growing consumer market. It is imperative to make our rice production systems more efficient, inclusive and sustainable,” Dar said.
During his recent visit to Brunei in a meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations member-states and major trading partners, Dar asked his counterparts, the agriculture chiefs from other rice exporting countries, Vietnam and Thailand in particular, to hold the release of export permits to rice traders without the Philippines-issued SPSIC.
“With agreement from my counterparts in rice-exporting countries, we hope to arrest the influx of undocumented imported rice coming in the country. This is our move as we prepare our local rice industry to produce more with less cost,” Dar added.
He cited the implementation of the component programs under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) aimed at improving the competitiveness and income of rice farmers amid rice trade liberalization.
The four programs on seeds, mechanization, credit, and extension services are expected to increase farmers’ palay (unmilled rice) yield up to 6 tons per hectare reduce their production cost down to P8 per kilogram (kg). The average production cost of palay in the Philippines is P12.72 per kg.
“RCEF is a major strategy to lessen our rice imports in the coming years. I am assuring our farmers that we are on schedule when it comes to the rollout of its component programs,” Dar said.
The RCEF is a component of RA 11203, which will be given P10 billion a year for six years to improve mechanization, and access to quality seeds and financing in the rice industry.
With the annual P10-billion RCEF, the DA through the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization will provide farmers with P5 billion worth of machinery and equipment, free high-yielding seeds worth P3 billion from the Philippine Rice Research Institute, P1 billion for credit support, and P1 billion for training through the Agricultural Training Institute.