“IRRI says we must invest in agricultural research and transportation infrastructure.”
You would think that the Philippines would be producing enough rice on its own since this is our staple food. Why so? Because we are a predominantly agricultural country with a large number of our people living in the rural areas and supporting themselves through agricultural activities.
In fact, about a quarter of employed Filipinos work in the agricultural sector which is made up of four sub-sectors: farming, fisheries, livestock, and forestry. As of 2022, the sector generated a gross value added (GVA) of about 1.78 trillion Philippine pesos, equivalent to about 8.9 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
But the stark reality is that we are among the biggest importers of rice in the world, relying on countries such as Vietnam and Thailand for enough supplies for our own needs.
Hence, the Philippines may reach new record overseas rice purchases until next year as it tries to meet an increasing demand for this staple food from a growing population.
The US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS) estimates our rice imports could reach 5 million metric tons (MT) this year, up by 6.4 percent from its previous estimate of 4.7 million MT. Vietnam supplied nearly 80 percent of the total with 2.98 million MT, followed by Thailand with 470,273.28 MT and Pakistan with 175,174.48 MT.
According to our Department of Agriculture, rice imports could hit a new record of 4.2 million MT by the end of this year following substantial losses from typhoons and the El Niño dry spell. The agency projects rice purchases from abroad to reach at least 400,000 MT in the last two months of 2024, depending on world market pricing. Expanded imports from neighboring Cambodia have allowed Vietnam to boost its exports to meet strong foreign demand.
Per Executive Order No. 62 signed by President Marcos in June this year, rice tariff rates would stay at a lower 15 percent, from the previous 35 percent, until 2028. The reduced tariffs have provided an attractive incentive for traders to bring imported rice into the country.
Based on data from the Bureau of Plant Industry, the volume of imported rice that entered the country as of Oct. 30 totaling 3.79 million MT had already surpassed 2023’s 3.6 million MT.
This year, from January to early November, the country imported 3.896 million MT of rice, with nearly 80 percent coming from Vietnam. It already breached the record-high import volume of 3.83 million MT in 2022 and surpassed last year’s figure of 3.6 million MT.
But why does the Philippines have to import rice?
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) offers several answers. The Philippines is a rice importer because it is a nation of islands without any major river deltas similar to those in Thailand and Vietnam. The major traditional exporters are all on the Southeast Asian mainland—Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar— while the countries that have been consistently importing rice for more than a hundred years—Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Japan, Korea, and Malaysia—are all islands or narrow peninsulas. Thailand, for instance, has four times the arable land per person versus the Philippines.
IRRI believes that the loss of agricultural land to urbanization cannot be cited as a reason for the trend towards more rice imports as its effects are small and are more than offset by cropland expansion elsewhere.
The research institute debunks the notion that we import rice because Filipino farmers are backward and cannot produce rice efficiently. IRRI says that surveys of farmers in the various rice bowls of Asia have found that Filipino farmers are among the leaders in reducing pesticide use, and have progressed further in mechanizing land preparation and postharvest operations than their counterparts in any other developing Asian country except Thailand.
IRRI clarifies that rice importation is not a relatively recent phenomenon as the Philippines has been importing rice almost every year since 1869.
There’s another important reason why we are a net importer of rice. The Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. We get hit by around 20 or so typhoons every year, which, according to IRRI, makes rice production riskier and difficult. It’s another geography-related issue that countries like Thailand don’t have to deal with as much.
So what’s the best way to reduce rice imports? IRRI says that to sustainably increase rice production, we must invest in agricultural research and transportation infrastructure, thereby providing farmers with more and better options in both production and marketing.
(Email: ernhil@yahoo.com)
