The Department of Agriculture (DA) estimates that the country’s total rice imports this year would decline by nearly a quarter to 2.2 million metric tons (MMT), from last year’s 3 MMT.
“I think we might have about 2.2 million metric tons of rice imports this year,” Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar during the House Committee on Appropriations hearing on the Department of Agriculture’s 2021 proposed budget.
Despite lower projected import volume, Dar assured the public that rice supply would be sufficient as local palay production is estimated to reach about 22 MMT, which would give the country a 93-percent rice self-sufficiency level.
The DA has repeatedly pronounced that they expect the country to end the year with a rice stock sufficient to last by at least 80 days.
The country’s rice imports from January to August reached 1.642 MMT, about 44 percent of the 3.737 MMT volume applied by the private sector to date, Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) data obtained by the BusinessMirror showed.
Latest BPI data also showed that rice imports in August reached a two-month high of 139,706.323 metric tons (MT) as importers used 189 sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPS-IC) to bring in the volume.
The eight-month volume was less than half of what 202 registered rice traders, comprising farmers cooperatives, organizations, traders, companies and private firms applied to import, BPI data further showed.
The BPI earlier told the BusinessMirror that “unjustified” underutilization by traders of their approved SPS-IC for milled rice is an “anomalous” activity that may disrupt state food sufficiency planning.
The BPI, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), said the underutilization of the SPS-ICs this year was attributed to such reasons as the lockdowns in countries of origin due to Covid-19 pandemic and export ban in Vietnam.
Other reasons given by rice importers were: delayed shipments, rice suppliers limiting their export to ensure supply for their own needs, port congestion and holidays at country of origins and high price of imported rice than locally produced staple, according to BPI’s National Plant Quarantine Service Division (NPQSD).
The United States Department of Agriculture projected that the Philippines would remain as the world’s top rice importer for the second consecutive year this 2020 with volume reaching 2.6 MMT.
The country’s rice imports last year reached a record-high of 3.1 MMT, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed.