COOPERATIVES, farmers’ groups and associations edged out companies and traders in terms of rice imports under the new trade regime, as they cornered a total of 1 million metric tons (MMT) of the staple at the end of 2019.
Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) data obtained and analyzed by the BusinessMirror showed that at least 120 multipurpose and farmers’ cooperatives, organizations and irrigators’ associations imported 1.043 MMT from March 5 until December 31, 2019. The rice trade liberalization law (RTL) which deregulated the industry took effect on March 5, 2019.
The volume imported by farmers’ organizations was 28 percent higher than the 810,548.85 MT of rice imported by the 96 traders, rice millers and corporations, which included the likes of Puregold Price Club Inc. and Davao-based firm Davao San-Ei Trading Inc.
BPI data showed that the total volume of rice that entered the country under the new trade regime by end-2019 was at 1.853 MMT, or half of the total applied volume of 3.632 MMT.
Rice importers used a total of 2,317 sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances to bring the staple into the Philippines out of the 4,069 total SPS-ICs issued to them from March 5 to December 31, 2019, according to BPI data.
During the 10-month period, farmers’ organizations used 1,134 SPS-ICs to import rice. The top rice-importing farmers’ group during the period was San Jacinto Poblacion Farmers Consumers Cooperative, which brought in 40,392 MT of rice. It was followed by Timmaguab II Primary Multi-Purpose Cooperative, which purchased 36,720 MT of rice imports, BPI data showed.
Davao-based firm Davao San-Ei Trading Inc. led all rice importers during the period with 64,636 MT, followed by publicly listed firm Puregold Price Club Inc. with 63,854.83 MT.
Investigation
Currently, farmers’ groups are under the scrutiny of the government after the Department of Agriculture (DA) initiated an investigation into cooperatives and associations that are supposedly being used as dummies or fronts by unscrupulous traders who want to take advantage of their tax-exemption incentives.
Documents obtained by the BusinessMirror showed a discrepancy between the financial capacity of some irrigators’ associations and the volume of rice they are importing (See “Farmer groups ‘top rice importers’–are they?,” in the BusinessMirror, November 21, 2019).
Bureau of Customs data compiled and analyzed by the BusinessMirror showed that the country’s total rice imports in 2019 reached a record-high 2.98 MMT. At least P14.7 billion in tariffs were collected from importers.
However, preliminary Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data obtained by the BusinessMirror showed that rice imports last year reached 2.76 MMT, which was 38 percent higher than the nearly 2 MMT imported in 2018.
The Philippines overtook China as the world’s top rice buyer in 2019 as the deregulation of the rice industry drove its total staple imports to record-high levels.
The United States Department of Agriculture expects the Philippines to remain as the top rice importer in the world this year as the country’s purchases are projected to reach 2.5 MMT despite the waning appetite of traders for the staple.