President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday assured the public that the country has ample supply of rice, and his administration is doing its best to control the price of the staple grain.
In a video interview, President Marcos – who is concurrent Agriculture Secretary — said the rice supply situation in the Philippines appears to be “good,” assuring Filipinos there would be no shortage in the coming months.
“It looks like our situation is good. Our supplies of rice will not be dangerously low and we are looking for all possible means to ensure that we can control the price and will not further increase.” the President said after meeting with officials of the Department of Agriculture and National Food Authority in Malacañang Palace.
“We’ll plan out if we will be needing to import, if we need to make it longer, to increase the buffer stock at the NFA because it is too low. That is the only problem that we foresee, the buffer stock of NFA is low so the NFA will be needing to buy so that the supply will be suitable for at least nine days,” the President stressed.
Mr. Marcos, however, pointed out that the NFA needs to buy its buffer stock from local producers, which drives the price of rice up, to ensure a sufficient supply of the grain.
“The problem is that if they enter the market, if they buy to replace the buffer stock which they are lacking it will cause the prices to go up because they will buy many,” the President noted.
‘That is what we are looking for so that we can adjust. Maybe we cannot buy it all of a sudden. It’s not high, that was it, also you have to remember. This is agriculture, this is cyclical, this is by season,” President Marcos explained.
The government, the President said, needs to make sure the NFA will be able to build up its buffer stocks for now.
“In terms of the general supply for the country, I think we are in good shape. And although we’ll still have to import, our importations have come down. Our agricultural sector is beginning to come back beyond pre-pandemic levels. And so that’s progressing nicely,” said Mr. Marcos.
Under the DA 2023 supply outlook, the country’s total supply is at 16.98 million metric tons (MMT), which is sufficient to cover this year’s demand estimated at 15.29 MMT.
“This would leave the country with an ending balance of 1.69 MMT, which is equivalent to 45 days of buffer stock, instead of the 90-day ideal buffer stock to stabilize the price of rice,” a DA briefer said.
The NFA is proposing the importation of 330,000 MT of rice to cover an expected deficit in the country’s buffer stock for the relief operations of various agencies in the event of calamities this year.
Agriculture officials said the proposed buffer stock of rice is equivalent to nine days of national consumption from July 2023 onwards and will ensure sufficient volume for calamity and relief requirements from July to December this year.
Given the NFA’s budgetary constraints, the agency expects its buffer stocks will decrease to less than 500,000 sacks by July 2023, which is equivalent to less than a day of public consumption.
Under the NFA’s proposed rice importation strategy, the agency proposes that the rice importation arrangement be undertaken through government-to-government transactions, either through the Office of the President or its designated agency.
Republic Act No. 11203 has removed the regulatory and import licensing issuance functions of the NFA and reduced its mandate to emergency buffer stocking of rice sourced solely from local farmers and allowed the private sector to freely import rice subject to a tariff.
The NFA may use its credit lines with the Development Bank of the Philippines and/or the Land Bank to finance the importation and provide logistics and management support.
Meanwhile, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) can procure imported stocks from the NFA and exclusively manage the final disposition.
As of April 6, the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) has issued 989 Sanitary and Phytosanitary Import Clearance (SPSIC) applications for 3.170 MMT volume of rice applied out of the 3,024 SPSICs.
Of this volume, 790,449.12 MT of imported rice has arrived.
Among those who met the President were Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban, Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian, Undersecretary Mercedita Sombilla, Assistant Secretary Rex Estoperez, NFA Administrator Roderico Bioco, Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel De Mesa and Bureau of Plant Industry Director Gerald Glenn Panganiban.