The decision of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to extend the validity of issued sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPS-IC) for rice imports is feared to bring down palay prices during the next harvest season.

Because of this, the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) is now asking Agriculture Secretary William Dar to come clean and reveal the “concerned stakeholders” who made such request from the government, which was later on approved by Dar.

To be specific, Dar recently issued Memorandum Circular (MC) 43, which states that rice and corn shipments from ASEAN countries, except Myanmar, should arrive in the country within 60 days of the SPS-IC issuance.

Shipments coming from Myanmar and other non-ASEAN countries, on the other hand, should be here within 90 days of the SPS-IC issuance.

The issuance came just a few days after Dar signed MC 38, which is the exact opposite of MC 43 and shortened the validity of SPS-ICs for rice imports from 60 days to 20 days. 

This is to not “depress local production prices,” according to Dar.

But then, Dar still proceeded to amend MC 38 and issue MC 43 after consultation with “concerned stakeholders“.

“The stakeholders suggested some adjustments in the days the SPS-IC must be used after issuance to accommodate possible delays in processing shipment by foreign suppliers,” Dar said.

FFF National Manager Raul Montemayor said the DA may have only talked with importers and traders and did not get the opinion of farmers and other affected parties before the issuance of MC 43. 

Montemayor said the latest MC likewise contradicted the agency’s previous circulars mandating consultations not only with importers but also producers to “assess local supply and demand appropriately”.

Calling the timing of the extension “ill-advised”, Montemayor said that imports could again depress palay prices just when farmers, who had recently been hit by typhoons, will start harvesting their dry season crop in March next year.

The extension also came at a time when DA is 
expecting a significant increase in domestic production during the second semester of 2020, thus raising the country’s rice self-sufficiency level despite the successive calamities.

As of December 4, total rice imports for the year amounted to 1.974 million metric tons (MT), surpassing the 1.857 million MT imported during the first ten months of implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law from March to December 2019.

“The DA’s job is to maintain stock levels within a target range and then calibrate the arrival of imports that would supplement local production, so as to avoid supply gluts or shortages.  It will be irresponsible for the DA to rely on traders to strike this balance and temper their appetite for making money,” Montemayor further said.