FARM IMPORTS have for some time been relied on to address food shortages and decreasing productivity brought on by crises such as El Niño and rising fuel and fertilizer prices.
In recent months, the Department of Agriculture (DA) has increased its efforts to manage trade in a manner that mitigates the impact of imports on farmers, while raising the profile of agricultural exports like bananas, mangoes, and pineapples in new global markets like Canada, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the European Union (EU).
The key import commodity the DA is exerting control over is rice, which has been subjected to a P50 per kilogram price cap on 5% broken-grain varieties.
During his fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. highlighted the potential of the ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR), a regional food security agreement involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan, and South Korea. The deal guarantees an emergency rice supply in case of shortages in domestic production.
OVERRELIANCE ON IMPORTS
In his analysis prior to the President’s address to Congress, Leonardo Q. Montemayor, chairman of the Federation of
Free Farmers (FFF) and a former agriculture secretary, said that the country has become overly reliant on imports to meet consumer demand.
Mr. Montemayor noted that the Philippines has imported around 30% of its rice needs since 2022, compared to below 10% a decade ago.
“Today, the country has the dubious distinction of being the biggest rice importer in the world,” Mr. Montemayor said in a statement.
Mr. Montemayor said that low tariff rates on rice, corn, pork, and poultry, and the resulting increase of shipments of such commodities from overseas did not significantly reduce retail prices, but instead caused producers to lose income and discourage planting and growing activity.
“The drastic drop in tariff collections (some P44 billion for rice alone) has deprived farmers of funding for improving their productivity and competitiveness,” Mr. Montemayor said.
Jayson H. Cainglet, executive director of the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG), said further tariff reductions under new free trade agreements would heavily impact the agriculture industry if adequate safeguards for domestic producers are not provided
“The Philippine agricultural sector has already borne the heavy consequences of unprecedented imports of staple commodities,” Mr. Cainglet told BusinessWorld via Viber.
“Many farmers have lost livelihoods or seen their incomes diminished. Yet despite increased imports and lower tariffs over the years, Filipino consumers continue to face high food prices,” he added.
According to Mr. Cainglet, trade liberalization should not come at the expense of the farmers, fisherfolk, and food security overall.
“Any agreement must ensure a level playing field, preserve policy space to support producers, and strengthen—rather than weaken—our capacity to feed our own people,” Mr. Cainglet said.
SINAG chairman Rosendo O. So said the Philippines has imported more agricultural commodities compared to how much it exports.
“We really lost in that trade,” Mr. So told BusinessWorld via Viber.
Mr. So said high imports and lower tariffs will affect food security, citing the EU’s request for 0% tariffs on pork and chicken.
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