DA to limit rice imports

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agriculture (DA) remains steadfast on keeping rice importation to a minimum despite an apparently strong lobby to increase rice imports.

DA acting undersecretary for operations Dante Delima, also the national coordinator of the Agri-Pinoy Rice Program, said rice importation for 2013 had been enormously reduced and the target production sufficiency this year would be attained.

This is contrary to the statement issued in the Senate by director Romeo Recide of the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics that the country cannot become rice sufficient this year, virtually supporting calls of some quarters to increase importation up to 500,000 metric tons.

Allaying fears of a rice shortage, Delima assured “nobody will starve, except perhaps the rice syndicates, which have been used to raking in huge profits from importation and hoarding at the expense of the Filipino farmers and the rest of the nation.”

Delima referred to the lobbyists as the same people who want to boot out DA Secretary Proceso J. Alcala and have him replaced by someone who would support their “selfish and greedy” cause.

 â€œThey (rice syndicates) are the ones being hurt by Secretary Alcala’s determined implementation of President Aquino’s Matuwid na Daan policy.  Hence, they are using every opportunity to get back at us, including manipulation of statistics and outright lies.

“But we will resist them as we have always done,” Delima said.  “Our constituents are the farmers, not the syndicates.”

From a total rice import volume of 2,399,403 MT in 2010, the DA has steadily reduced it to only 1,063,985 MT in 2011, 688,559 MT in 2012, and 208,600 MT as of July 18, 2013, government records show.

For the very first time, there was zero importation by the private sector during that almost seven-month period in 2013.

In terms of actual arrivals, rice importation by the government through the National Food Authority dropped steeply from 2,149,096 MT in 2010 to only 251,300 MT in 2011, 119,776 MT in 2012, and 205,700 as of July 18, 2013.

At the same time, Philippine palay production went up by 5.78 percent from only 15,772,319 MT in 2010 to 16,684,062 MT in 2011.  This rose further by 8.08 percent to 18,032,422 MT in 2012, historically the highest ever annual palay production in the Philippines.

“The actual figures speak for themselves.  Matuwid na Daan works,” Delima stressed.