PRECIOUS GRAINS Farmer Irene Soriben uses a “saki” (rice shovel) to collect sundried palay (unhusked rice) at a rice drying facility in the village of Kita-Kita in Balungao, Pangasinan. The government says food producers, like rice and vegetable farmers, and workers in the agriculture industry will be key in the country’s economic recovery after the pandemic. —RICHARD BALONGLONG / FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary William Dar said the implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), which started in 2018, has managed to lower the prices of well-milled rice by as much as P7 per kilo.
“Bumaba po ang presyo ng well-milled rice mula P45 kada kilo noong 2018, na may pilahan pa, sa P38 kada kilo ngayon,” Dar said in a statement on Friday, referring to the effects of the RTL.
(The price of well-milled rice was lowered from P45 per kilo in 2018 to P38 per kilo right now)
The RTL establishes the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) which seeks to improve rice farmers’ competitiveness and income amid the liberalization of the country’s rice trade.
Under the law, P10 billion in tariff revenues from rice imports are annually allocated for the rice fund over a period of six years.
On Friday, Dar also noted that the cost of producing a kilo of rice has gone down from P12.52 per kilo to P11.52 kilo.
“By the end of the six-year implementation of the (RTL) law, we shall be near the P8 per kilo production cost target,” he said.
The DA earlier reported that the local production of rice last year met 85 percent of the country’s total requirement, higher than the 79.8 percent self-sufficiency level recorded in 2019.
This marks the first time the Philippines was able to see an improvement in its rice self-sufficiency after experiencing three straight years of decline.
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