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THE Agriculture department has recommended a temporary halt to rice imports and the imposition of higher tariffs to protect local farmers, a Palace official said on Monday.

“The Cabinet will discuss this urgent matter with the president in India on the sidelines of his state visit,” Presidential Communications Secretary Dave Gomez said as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. left for New Delhi on a five-day trip.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. last week said his department would propose limiting rice imports to around 750,000 metric tons (MT) to one million MT annually, only enough to cover supply gaps and maintain two to three months of buffer stock.

“Imported rice is creating a problem for local rice producers,” he said on Thursday. “It is eating market share, and that could force even local millers to close shop and just go into rice importation.”

The country’s rice imports reached a record high of 4.8 million MT last year, surpassing the previous peak of 3.86 million MT in 2022.

Also last week, Department of Agriculture (DA) spokesman Joycel Panlilio said they were considering proposing a rice tariff hike to at least 25 percent as part of plans to gradually return the rice import duty to 35 percent to prevent market shocks.

Marcos slashed the rate to 15 percent last year in a bid to temper prices of the staple and also ease inflationary pressures. 

The recommendation to halt imports and raise the rice tariff follows the DA’s having said that unmilled rice production could hit a record high this year.

Palay output reached 9.08 million MT in the first half, a 6.4-percent increase from the 8.53 million MT recorded a year earlier. This was said to be the second time that production had breached million MT in the first half since 2023.

With first-half harvests half typically accounting for over 40 percent of the annual production, the DA said the country could even surpass the palay production target of 20.46 million MT for 2025.

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Meanwhile, farmers’ groups that have been complaining that imports were behind a drop in palay buying prices welcomed the news from Malacañang.

Raul Montemayor, national manager of the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF), said the DA “should have acted sooner and more decisively.”

The Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) said Marcos should ask Congress to immediately pass a law that would bring rice tariffs back to 35 percent for imports from within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and 50 percent for those outside Asean.

“A delayed directive risks driving palay prices even lower, further worsening the crisis faced by our rice farmers,” Sinag Executive Director Jayson Cainglet said.

The FFF said the government could invoke Republic Act 8800 or the Safeguard Measures Act, which would allow the agriculture chief to impose provisional safeguard duties to address a surge in imports.

Sinag also urged the government to increase the National Food Authority’s (NFA) palay procurement budget to at least P60 billion to allow the agency to purchase more palay from local farmers at fair prices.

It called for a palay floor buying price of P18/kg for fresh palay and P23/kg for dry palay — within the NFA’s palay buying price of P17/kg to P23/kg for fresh palay and P23/kg to P30/kg for dry palay.

“Our farmers cannot wait. They need immediate, sustained, and decisive support to continue farming and ensure our nation’s food security,” Cainglet said.

The FFF said rice prices do not have to go up even with higher tariffs as long as the government acts against profiteering by industry players.

Source : msn