Group urges govt to freeze ₧8-billion rice import plan

THE Action for Economic Reforms (AER) is urging the government to suspend its plan to import 300,000 metric tons (MT) of rice and use the P8-billion allocated fund to support local farmers and boost domestic food production instead.

In a news statement, AER said it “strongly opposed” the government’s 300,000-MT rice importation via government-to-government (G2G) as it could affect the farm-gate price of palay as harvesting is still ongoing.

“It is improper for government to spend billions of pesos to import rice. Let the private sector do the importation to fill in the inventory if needed. It will do a better job than a government-government arrangement which is prone to waste and corruption,” AER President Jessica Reyes-cantos said on Tuesday.

“That’s the whole point of shifting the protection of the rice sector from quotas to tariffs via the rice tariffication law. It will be foolhardy to go back to having government do the importation,” Reyes-cantos added.

Reyes-cantos said the P8-billion fund allocated for the G2G importation would “be better spent toward increasing our farmers’ productivity and safeguarding their welfare given the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.”

“The money, for example, can be used to directly purchase our farmers’ produce. We were informed that our farmers in Sorsogon have lots of fruits and vegetables harvested, which are just given away as there are no wholesale buyers because of the distance from Metro Manila,” she said.

“DA [Department of Agriculture] may partner with local groups to broaden its reach and not be concentrated in high production areas where traders are active. Let’s help our poor hardworking farmers and their families,” she added.

The philippines is pushing through with its P8-billion 300,000-metric ton rice importation via G2G transaction to ensure the country has sufficient stockpile amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said the budget for the importation has been approved and will be handled by the Department of Trade and Industry’s Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC).

The idea for the G2G rice importation came from the DA and the National Food Authority (NFA), Dar added.

Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said the budget for the rice importation is P8 billion, while details of the G2G transaction are still being finalized.

Dar said the DA and the NFA are providing technical advice to the PITC regarding the G2G importation since the NFA has been involved with rice importation, especially G2G, prior to deregulation of the rice industry.

“The budget for the importation has been approved and has been given to DTI-PITC. They will lead the G2G arrangement. We had a meeting last week, PITC [is] now leading the G2G discussions,” Dar said in a virtual press conference on Monday.

According to Dar, there are various available rice suppliers in the world market today despite the reported export suspension by certain exporters like Vietnam.

“There’s a lot of supply. We have a lot of suppliers. Even India is offering a G2G of 300,000 metric tons. Myanmar is still wide open,” he said.

Since the start of the year, about 600,000 MT of rice has been imported by the private sector, while 1.3 million MT could still enter the country with all the existing sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances (SPS-IC) issued by the Bureau of Plant Industry to eligible importers, Dar added.

Dar disclosed that about 400,000 MT of rice from Vietnam will arrive in the country this month following Hanoi’s assurance that it will honor existing supply contracts with Philippine importers.