The Philippines is looking at India, reputedly the world’s top rice exporter, as an alternative source of the staple in case rice-producing countries in Southeast Asia raised their prices and form a rice cartel, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Saturday.
DA Undersecretary Fermin Adriano, in a radio interview, said President Duterte has issued an executive order lowering the tariff on imported rice from India from 50 percent to 35 percent.
The rice import duty for countries not part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is 50 percent
“If this happens, we have an alternative source (of rice).” Adriano said.
Thailand’s government has announced its plan to forge an agreement with Vietnam to boost their bargaining power and help mitigate rising production costs.
Thailand and Vietnam are deemed the world’s second and third largest rice exporters, accounting for 10 percent of global rice supply, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture.
India supplies about 40 percent of the world rice demand.
Adriano said the planned Thailand-Vietnam rice cartel would be impossible if India would not join the group.
“The rice from India is cheaper compared to Vietnam, but the problem is logistics,” Adriano said.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar on Tuesday warned there was a shortage in the local production of fish, pork, and rice due in part to years of neglect on the agriculture sector.
Dar said there was a scarcity in fish and pork, and rice levels were only at 92 percent.
Speaking of the low priority given to agriculture, Dar said the Philippines allotted only 1.5 percent of its budget to the sector as opposed to other countries who earmarked 3.5 percent to 6 percent of their budget for agriculture.
Dar said the incoming administration of President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will inherit an agriculture sector that has been “under-budgeted, and neglected all these 30 years.”
