Group bucks gov’t plan to import rice

THE NATIONAL Economic and Development Authority’s decision to import 1.8 million tons of rice next year could be ill-advised and contrary to previous pronouncements of the Aquino administration, according to the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag).

“Farmers are just harvesting the bulk of their [main crop for this year], how can the Neda speculate on the need to import rice,” Sinag chair Rosendo So told the Inquirer.

Sinag, which groups 33 organizations of farmers, agribusiness operators and party-list groups, insisted that the government should check the supplies in warehouses and wait for the harvest to finish before making decisions.

“They have not even taken into account the huge volumes of milled rice smuggled into the country,” So said in an interview.

According to Sinag, milled rice smuggled into the Philippines in the past five years totaled 2.8 million tons worth P83.2 billion.

On top of that, Sinag believed that an additional 365,000 tons of rice worth P10.9 billion were brought into the country illegally during the first first six months of 2015.

“Warehouses are still full from previous importations and smuggling that the administration failed to fight,” said So. “There is no immediate need to import rice.”

Last September, the National Food Authority awarded contracts to state-run suppliers in Vietnam and Thailand for the importation of a total of 750,000 tons of the staple grain. The entire volume is expected to be delivered in tranches before the end of the first quarter of 2016.

Last week, Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said that based on estimates by Neda and the Department of Agriculture, the Philippine might have to import 1.3 million tons in addition to the initially planned 500,000 tons.

Balisacan told reporters that the decision was part of the proposed Roadmap to Address the Impact of El Niño.

Sinag’s So said that if the excuse to import more was the drought to be caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon, the government should instead help farmers plant new crops by waiving irrigation fees and subsidizing seeds and other farm inputs.

“The Aquino administration started with a pronouncement that we are swimming in rice due to over-importation, which should stop,” said Herculano Co Jr., president of the Philippine Confederation of Grains Association. “Now the administration officials want to end their term by drowning us with rice.”