WITH so much bad news wherever one turns these days, it was good to hear from Secretary of Agriculture William Dar that the Philippines will not experience a rice shortage this year despite the many restrictions that have cut down much of the nation’s economic production.
There will be no shortage like that of 2018 when the country suffered a year-long rise in market prices that was stopped only in September by the enactment of the Rice Tariffication Law. The law ended previous laws and regulations limiting the volume of rice that could be imported, as long as the proper tariff was paid.
There will still be importations of rice from Thailand and Vietnam, Secretary Dar said, but the imports will be substantially beefed up by the DA’s “Plant, Plant, Plant” program. We now have a rice supply good for 75 days, Secretary Dar said. This will be boosted by the harvest from the main wet season crop. By the end of 2020, the DA expects a total rice supply of 18 million metric tons. This is 18 percent more than the expected demand of 14.67 million metric tons, he said. In addition, the government is ready to import 300,000 tons of rice if needed.
July to September are the traditional lean months for rice in the Philippines, but there will be no shortage of supply this year. In fact, there will be an oversupply. Prices will remain law for the nation’s consumers.
Low prices – this is good news for consumers which make up the bulk of the Philippine population. But if rice prices get too low, it becomes a problem for the nation’s rice farmers. They will simply stop farming.
The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) warned this weekend that excessive importations will keep prices down but they will discourage local farmers from planting and the country will become more dependent on foreign suppliers for its food needs.
FFF National Manager Raul Montemayor said that while the government has been granting loans, subsidies, and other incentives to encourage Filipino farmers to increase their production, it is encouraging private importers to bring in unlimited volumes of rice from abroad. “It appears that the DA just wants to flood the market with rice and is not really concerned about what happens to farmers in the process,” he said.
There is obviously a need to balance these two interests – our consumers who need sufficient rice supplies at affordable prices and our farmers who need market prices that are high enough to meet their production costs and give them some profit.
This is a very difficult balance to achieve and maintain. We welcome Secretary Dar’s good news for consumers, that there will be more than enough rice this year. But we hope to also hear that our farmers will be able to earn enough to continue farming. In fact, it is our hope that eventually, our own farmers will be able to produce enough for export like Thailand and Vietnam today.
