The Department of Agriculture on Tuesday expressed appreciation to the prompt action of the Philippine Ports Authority and the Bureau of Customs to facilitate the swift movement of imported agricultural products to increase supply in the market and, possibly, lower prices for Filipino consumers.
The PPA said last week that hundreds of container vans loaded with food products, including rice, had been sitting in Manila ports—some of them for several months–as consignees delay their withdrawal.
Port officials suspect consignees might be trying to reduce warehousing cost or just waiting for prices of the food items to rise as they appear to have imported these items at higher prices.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr. said based on data reviewed by DA, the delay in the shipping and delivery of imported farm products was caused by several storms and weather disturbances, including recent typhoons.
“The delay was caused by force majeure,” he said.
The DA chief said the closer cooperation with BOC and PPA would also help the DA better time importation to enhance management of domestic food supply and ensure food security.
“This would help up improve our supply and price forecasting and avoid artificial shortages caused by product hoarding. Data that we will gather will also help us determine which importers to blacklist, if needed,” the DA chief said.
The DA is looking at adding requirements to the import permits issued by its agencies, particularly the Bureau of Plant Industry and Bureau of Animal Industry, to ensure that imported agricultural food products are immediately delivered to warehouses and sold to the market.
PPA general manager Jay Santiago, in a news conference held separately in Malacañang, pledged cooperation with the DA on monitoring of food shipments, noting this arrangement would allow the agency to better manage movement of food containers in various seaports and contribute to the improvement of trade and economic activity.
Santiago said as a result of the inspection of 888 “overstaying” container vans last week, around 300 container vans were pulled out by their consignees. He expects more to be removed from the ports before the end of the month.
Santiago said by Oct. 1, the PPA would send a report to the DA on the overstaying imported agricultural food prices and ask the BOC to declare these shipments as abandoned for proper disposition.
DA assistant secretary and spokesman Arnel de Mesa said even if those overstaying container vans are all loaded with rice, the volume is just a small percentage of the 3.9 million metric tons of imported rice and won’t affect rice prices in the market.
De Mesa said retail prices of rice started to decline from around P50 a kilogram to P42 for imported well-milled rice and P45 for local well-milled rice.
He said prices should ease further as the full impact of the recent tariff reduction is felt by January.
Tiu Laurel said last week he expected rice prices to start easing by the middle of October as a result of the reduction in import tariff to 15 percent from 35 percent starting July 8.
He said the full impact of the tariff cut might be felt by January 2025 as rice supply bought before the tariff reduction were fully consumed.
