Rice imports to be much less this year

Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Q. Montemayor said yesterday that the country will be importing "dramatically less" rice this year compared to last year’s 770,000-780,000 metric tons because of bigger areas planted to both hybrid and certified rice seeds.

In an interview after the signing of a $35 million soft loan for the construction of the Banaoang Pump Irrigator Project by the China National Construction and Agricultural Machinery Import and Export Corp. (CAMC) at the Bureau of Soils, Montemayor said the area to be planted to hybrid rice this year will be 135,000 hectares and for certified seeds the area to be planted is over one million hectares from its 2001 planting area of 700,000 hectares.

Montemayor said the National Food Authority governing council, which he chairs, is meeting on Monday to discuss the volume of rice to be imported this year as well as to finalize the guidelines for private sector importation, in keeping with President Arroyo’s commitment last July of removing NFA’s rice import monopoly.

"Definitely, with a projected palay harvest of 13.3 million metric tons this year (which already factored in the effects of the El Niño and the continuing conflict in Mindanao), we will be importing dramatically less rice this year," Montemayor vowed. Last year’s palay harvest was 12.95 million metric tons.

The NFA makes the final decision on the volume to be imported — based on the report of the inter agency committee on rice of the DA (which already includes the forecast production, ending stock and estimates of the beginning stocks of NFA and private sector as well as possible impact of calamities to total supply). The IAC on rice has submitted its report to Montemayor early this month.

Montemayor said the final guidelines on rice imports will be out by end of this month so that volumes to be imported can already be contracted and can arrive before the harvest of the dry season crop.

Definitely, he said, rice farmers who will be accredited by the nine-man accreditation committee, which DA heads, will make the rules as simple as possible in keeping with the President’s directive of reducing red tape. And the farmers will be given the lion’s share.

On his recent bilateral discussions with his counterpart, Australian Minister of Agriculture Warren Truss, Montemayor said he made it clear that the Philippines expects reciprocity in its trade with that country.

"If they want us to increase our dairy imports, then they must comply with their timetable of completing the import risk analysis (IRA) for pineapples and bananas this June 2002 to ensure a free market for Philippine tropical fruits in Australia," he said.

If Australia can not fulfill its commitment to us, then we can always get our dairy requirements from other sources such as New Zealand and Europe.

Montemayor also stressed that Australia, being the head of the CARIRNS group — the forerunner of World Trade Organization — then it must fully demonstrate its commitment to free and fair trade.

He said Truss assured him that the Australian quarantine people will be here in the next two weeks to meet with Philippine quarantine officials on their procedures and requirements to pave the way for entry of Philippine tropical fruits in that market.