The Department of Agriculture (DA) is seeking to restore key regulatory powers of the National Food Authority (NFA) by amending the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), although the NFA will not regain its authority to import rice directly.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said during recent Senate and House agriculture hearings that rice importation would remain with the private sector. The private sector will also be tasked with helping maintain the country’s rice buffer stock.
“They have to have skin in the game. If we aim to have a 20-day rice buffer stock, we’re thinking of a 50-50 split between the NFA and the private sector,” he said.
Under the proposal, rice imports would follow a controlled model, similar to the Sugar Regulatory Administration’s (SRA) program, where only qualified importers are granted allocations. Importers would also be required to buy “palay,” or unhusked rice, from local farmers at fair prices as part of buffer stocking.
He explained that having the private sector partly handle buffer stocking and source from local farmers would also “reduce the cost of buffer stocking for government.”
The NFA was stripped of its regulatory powers under the RTL and can only purchase about 5 percent of national palay output due to limited capacity. Its function is confined to stocking rice for emergency and disaster relief.
Tiu Laurel cited the need for the DA to have regulatory oversight on rice imports to avoid oversupply, which has driven down farmgate prices.
“Rice is a commodity imbued with too much public interest to leave entirely to the private sector,” he said.
If necessary, the DA’s attached corporations, Food Terminal Inc. and Planters Products Inc., could import rice on behalf of the government, he said.
The proposed reforms are designed to balance affordable rice for consumers with fair returns for Filipino farmers.
