Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. said the proposed changes are meant to balance affordable rice prices for consumers with fair farmgate prices for Filipino rice farmers.
Private sector role:
Speaking before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Tiu Laurel stressed that rice importation will remain in private hands, but importers must help maintain the country’s rice buffer stock.
“They have to have skin in the game,” he said. “If we aim to have a 20-day rice buffer stock, we’re thinking of a 50-50 split between the NFA and the private sector.”
Under the proposal, rice imports would follow a controlled allocation system similar to the sugar import model, where qualified importers receive allocations and are required to buy palay from local farmers at fair prices.
Reducing government costs:
“With the private sector partly doing the buffer stocking, sourcing from local rice farmers, it will also reduce the cost of buffer stocking for the government,” Tiu Laurel noted.
Currently, the NFA—stripped of its powers under RTL—can only purchase around 5 percent of national palay output due to limited facilities and is confined to emergency and disaster relief supply.
Regaining control:
Tiu Laurel also told the House Committee on Agriculture that the DA should have regulatory power over imports to prevent oversupply that depresses farmgate prices.
“We must regain control,” he said. “Rice is a commodity imbued with too much public interest to leave entirely to the private sector.”
The DA chief added that attached corporations Food Terminal, Inc. and Planters Products Inc. could import on behalf of the government if necessary. —Ed: Corrie S. Narisma
