Farmers seek transparency in rice import plan

MANILA  -The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) is urging the Marcos administration to be transparent in its importation plan after the Department of Agriculture (DA) disclosed that shipments from India are set to proceed.

“It is not clear if a government agency will undertake the shipment, notwithstanding the fact that the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) prohibits importation by the National Food Authority (NFA),” FFF national manager Raul Montemayor said in a statement on Wednesday.

“If the private sector will do the importation, how will the Indian quota be allocated among importers?” Montemayor said.

In his confirmation appointment on Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Laurel said shipments from India would arrive in the country through a prior arrangement brokered by President Marcos.

READ: PH gets 295,000 MT of rice in best ‘special’ deal with India

“I would not like to say the quantities because when I say them, prices of the commodity go up and down so I want to protect the people from speculators,” he said.

“What I can say is we are covered until the end of January until early February,” he added.

Laurel is referring to the 295,000 metric tons (MT) of rice from India that would enter the country, the largest allocation to be provided by the Indian government.

In a notification issued by India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, a total of 1.03 million MT of nonbasmati white rice would be exported to Nepal, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Republic of Guinea, Malaysia, the Philippines and Seychelles.

This government-to-government arrangement would be facilitated by India’s National Cooperative Exports Ltd.

The DA had said prices of rice would stabilize, especially during the holiday season, on the back of projected improvement in domestic production and the arrival of rice shipments from India.

READ: Agri officials see stable rice prices

As of Tuesday, local regular milled retailed from P33 to P52 per kilogram compared to P38 per kg a year prior, based on the agency’s price monitoring. Local well-milled rice is sold from P45 to P55 per kg, higher than last year’s P40 per kg.

Regular milled rice sourced from abroad is not available in the markets but imported well-milled rice is priced at P52 per kg, also higher than P42 per kg previously.