FARMERS’GROUP SEES HIGHER RICE IMPORTS
A FARMERS’ organization sees higher rice imports this year despite elevated prices of the commodity in the global market.
Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) national manager Raul Montemayor also said that the record palay (unmilled rice) in 2023 was only a small improvement over the previous year.
“Our imports [will] continue to increase because our production is not catching up with the annual increase in population and domestic rice requirements,” said Montemayor.
Despite the recent announcement of a record local rice harvest last year of a little over 20 million metric tons (MT), Montemayor said that “this is actually only a small improvement given that our 2021 output was already at 19.9 million MT.”
In 2022, local rice production went down to 19.76 million MT. “A record crop in 2023 is just offsetting part of what we lost in 2022, and will not be enough to offset the growth in demand,” said Montemayor.
Furthermore, he added that the Philippines’ status as the top rice importer globally will depend on how large other countries will decide to import.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecast the Philippines to remain as the world’s top importer of the commodity, estimated to reach 3.8 million MT this year.
Last year, inbound shipments of the staple totaled 3.6 million MT, down 5.9 percent from the record-high 3.82 million MT logged in 2022, according to DA’s Bureau of Plant Industry.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said that the Philippines has been one of the biggest rice importing countries for many years already.
“Especially now that there is a risk of El Niño drought that would reduce palay and rice output, especially if El Niño is severe, so targeted and managed rice importation would be the recourse,” said Ricafort.
However, he added that this can be offset through government initiatives to boost rice agricultural productivity.
Higher rice prices at the world market coupled with the dry phenomenon leads to reduced rice production and in turn would also lead to some pick up in prices of the commodity, said Ricafort.