The volume of rice allowed to enter the country has drastically dropped in October this year following the imposition of stricter sanitary and phytosanitary requirements on imported grains, Agriculture Secretary William Dar said on November 13, 2019.

In an interview on the sidelines of 2019 Rice Trader World Rice Conference in Makati, Dar said that rice importation volume reached 85,000 metric tons in October from a monthly average of 254,000 MT in the first nine months of the year.

“We will continue to be strict and continue to elevate [food safety] measures before the issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPSIC),” Dar said.

He said that the Department of Agriculture (DA) will continue to implement the measures, particularly during harvest season to protect local palay farmers from further influx of cheaper imported rice.

He added that the Philippine government has already informed Vietnam and Thailand — the main sources of Manila’s rice requirement — on the tighter SPSIC measures.

“We are not afraid because we are after food safety,” Dar said when asked about possible criticisms from importers and rice-producing nations.

To date, Manila has imported a total of 2.9 million MT.

Amid calls by lawmakers and stakeholders, Dar said that the review of the Rice Tariffication Law is still premature, noting that the surge in volume of imported rice is a natural market reaction as a result of trade liberalization of the staple.

“In fact, a surge in imports is natural for any commodity being traded in a newly liberalized market,” Dar said.

“Give the law a chance. We want RTL to work for both farmers and consumers,” he said.

“At the end of the day, this is a reform that has been long wanting and should be implemented now.”

To recall, Manila started imposing tariff on imported rice in March 2019 in lieu of import quotas to ease inflation.

While the government was successful in slowing down inflation through rice trade liberalization, it has also significantly depressed buying of palay at farmgate.

Dar said that the situation is only temporary and market will correct itself soon.

He also said that the higher reported import volume is beneficial in a way, saying that the government is now able to rightfully collect taxes from legal trade of rice unlike before when smuggling was rampant due to imposition of the QR on rice. ### (DA-Communications Group)