FARMERS said the government needs to initiate a safeguard duties investigation into foreign rice producers, claiming that domestic cultivators have suffered losses amounting to P43 billion due to unfair competition from imported rice.
Raul Montemayor, national manager of the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF), said freezes on rice imports and hikes on rice import tariffs need to be supplemented by a formal safeguard duties investigation.
“By itself, the import ban will not prop up palay prices significantly, because traders anticipate that cheap imports will flood the market again when the ban is lifted in November,” Mr. Montemayor said in a petition to the Department of Agriculture (DA).
In his petition, he urged the government to use its authority under Republic Act (RA) 8800, or the Safeguard Measures Act. RA 8800 allows industries that claim to be unfairly disadvantaged by foreign competition to propose the imposition of safeguard duties against their foreign competitors.
The law gives the government the power to impose safeguard duties on such imports, on top of regular taxes charged on the commodity.
On top of paying the current 15% tariff, importers will be required to post a bond equivalent to the safeguard duty, according to the law.
The Magsasaka Party-list provided the estimate of lost income sustained by 2.5 million rice farmers.
The government froze rice imports for 60 days starting Sept. 1 to provide relief to farmers, who have been receiving low prices for their palay (unmilled rice). However, farmgate prices have not risen significantly in response.
Traders use stocks of imported rice as leverage against farmers, giving them the ability to walk away if farmers insist on selling for more. In some provinces, the farmgate price for palay reportedly fell to as low as P8 per kilo before the import freeze.
After the freeze was announced, farmgate prices rose to about P14 per kilo before falling back to P10.
The National Food Authority buys clean and dry palay for P23-30 per kilo depending on location and grain quality, serving as a buyer of last resort for farmers. However, it can buy only a small portion of the harvest due to storage and budget constraints.
The DA is reportedly weighing an extension of the ban until the end of the year to see if the intended price relief materializes.
Magsasaka Chairman Argel Joseph T. Cabatbat said current prices are unsustainable due to the pressure on farmers from cheap imports.
Mr. Cabatbat said: “The very survival of rice farmers and the long-term security of our entire agricultural sector” is at stake.
The FFF and Magsasaka support raising import tariffs to reduce the differential traders pay between foreign and domestic rice, encouraging them to pay fair prices for the Philippine harvest. — Andre Christopher H. Alampay