The country’s rice self-sufficiency ratio (SSR) fell to an eight-year low in 2018, as more imports flowed into the Philippines to plug the shortfall in domestic production, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The PSA said in its report published on Wednesday that the rice SSR of the Philippines fell to 86.17 percent last year, from 93.44 percent recorded in 2017.
“This means that 86.17 percent of the total supply of rice was sourced from the domestic production,” the PSA report read.
The PSA said rice SSR declined last year as domestic output shrank while the supply of imports went up.
The country’s corn SSR also fell to an all-time low last year, according to the PSA. In 2018, the corn SSR was at 88.43 percent, lower than the 94.34 percent in 2017.
“The drop in the SSRs of both commodities was attributed to the decreasing local production while there was a large increase in importation,” the PSA said.
The country’s palay output last year slid to 19.066 million metric tons from 19.276 MMT in 2017, PSA data showed. Also, total corn production in 2018 contracted by 1.8 percent to 7.771 MMT from the 2017 record of 7.914 MMT.
The PSA defines SSR as “the magnitude of production in relation to domestic utilization.” The SSR shows the extent to which a country’s supply of commodities is derived from its own domestic production.
“A ratio of less than 100 percent indicates inadequacy of food production to cope with the demand of the population; equal to 100 percent indicates that food production capacity of the sector is just enough to support the food needs of the population; ratio of greater than 100 percent indicates that domestic production is more than enough to support the domestic requirements,” the PSA said.
“The higher the ratio, the greater the self-sufficiency,” it added.
Due to the decline in local production, the country’s import dependency ratio for rice and corn rose last year. The IDR, the PSA said, “indicates the extent to which a country’s supply of commodities came from imports.”
“A high ratio implies greater dependency on importation,” it said.
The country’s rice IDR rose to 13.83 percent from its 2017 record of 6.56 percent, the PSA said. “This indicates that 13.83 percent of the country’s supply of rice came from imports.” “Likewise, importation of corn went up as it recorded an IDR of 11.57 percent in 2018,” it added.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes