THE PHILIPPINES, a Southeast Asian agricultural country, used to be one of the leading producers of rice across the region. Even other neighboring countries like Vietnam came to the Philippines before to learn about methods used by Filipino farmers.
But with the central government no direct control on the production of rice for many years, the country was left behind by other neighboring countries, relying yearly on imported goods, making the country known globally as the number one importer of agricultural products, particularly rice.
While the central government has assured that the Philippine agriculture sector remains capable of producing enough rice and other locally produced food to cater the needs of its 111 million people across the country, the government still picked importation as an option to combat the food crisis.
Despite challenges like the pandemic, Russia-Ukraine invasion, or surge in the price of fuel and destructive storms annually, the Philippines is expected to reach 19.50 million metric tons of paddy, locally known as palay, this year, or about 12.724 MMT of rice. That figure is a little bit lower compared to last year's production that reached about 19.96 million metric tons.
In the agriculture ministry’s demand outlook released two months ago, the country needs about 17.364MMT rice, the country’s staple food for 15.137MMT annual demand and buffer. According to Zamzamin Ampatuan, the undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture, farmers can produce locally grown crops like rice but it’s not enough to cover the needs of the entire people.
For example, there were supplies of corn in the country from local farmers but due to big demand for agricultural feed production, the country imported the raw materials.For cattle production, the country has supplies but factories producing processed foods like corned beef and hotdogs sourced out their tons of requirements abroad.
According to Mr. Ampatuan, the country can never get rid of importation despite the country having adequate supply. His reason? Locally produced food is not adequate yearly.This is the reason why its experts, according to him, are finding solutions – by research and implementing programs – to increase the food production in the country, particularly the rice, Filipinos staple food.
Mr. Ampatuan, explaining the current situation, said that if the government will not make drastic moves to reform the agricultural system, the country will forever rely on importation of food. Worst of all, it will result in a food crisis.
The current food market demand
In the Philippines, globally ranked 64th of the 113 countries in terms of food security, the most in demand food is rice. It’s the people’s staple food. A big chunk of the supply comes from farmers. According to the Department of Agriculture, the country is importing about 8 to 10 percent of its demand yearly.
This year, nationwide, the Philippines needs around 17.364MMT rice. Of the total demand, 15.137MMT is for annual usage.
Data from the Department of Agriculture cited the country imports 8-10 percent of the country’s total demand to India and Vietnam. From these two nations usually the Philippines gets the buffer supplies. But according to Ampatuan, they are searching for other prospects that will be the source of rice imports.
Another in demand is corn. It’s much needed in the Philippines although there is supply but not adequate. While the country’s production this year reached 7.9 million MT, Mr. Ampatuan said the nation is one hundred percent dependent on imports for this raw material as it is being used as main material for the feed production for livestock like chicken. The poultry industry, for instance, is dependent on importation of corn.
Records from the Philippine Statistic Authority, as cited by Ampatuan, showed the country's corn imports reached 1.7 million MT as of October this year.
On livestock production, another in demand food in the market is the broiler. Currently, the supply for the year is 1.82 million metric tons (MT)—1.65 million MT of which are locally produced. The Philippines usually sourced out the remaining supplies abroad particularly from Brazil, United States and in Canada.
According to Ampatuan, the public is not particular with brands of chicken produced as there were small players nationwide. However, institutional consumers like five-star hotels and food chains, prefer imported products.
On the other hand, the demand for pork meat this year is about 1.79 million MT—about 0.10 million MT higher than the country’s total supply. So far, the country has imported 0.29 million MT of pork this year. In general, the country gets a big chunk of the lacking supplies from Spain, Canada and Brazil.
For cattle production, Mr. Ampatuan cited 61.54 thousand metric tons, liveweight, were produced as of September this year, a slight increase of 0.9 percent compared to last year’s same period production of 60.99 thousand metric tons, liveweight.
Ampatuan explained there were adequate supplies of beef in the market nationwide but manufacturers of corned beef, hotdogs, and steaks, mostly rely their raw materials from India, Brazil, Australian and United States.
Current Food Trade Between PH and other countries
In the second quarter of this year, the country’s agricultural trade was recorded at USD 6.95 billion. Data from the government’s Philippine Statistics Authority released October 2022 which I obtained from research indicated the total agricultural trade recorded an annual increment of 30.9 percent compared to last year’s the same period of 33.7 percent.
For the second quarter of the current year, agricultural exports were recorded at USD 2.12 billion (30.4%). The import was around USD 4.84 billion (69.6%).
Among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries partner of the Philippines, Malaysia is leading, with agricultural exports with USD 158.58 million or a share of 47.1 percent to the total agricultural exports. Overall, exports in ASEAN were recorded at USD 336.56 million in this year’s second quarter.
Taking the next spot with Malaysia is Indonesia with USD 66. 32 million; Thailand, USD 34.05 million; Singapore with USD 32.20 million; and Vietnam, USD 19. 48 million.
Agricultural products usually exported to ASEAN countries were animal or vegetable fats and oils and their cleavage products; prepared edible fats; animal or vegetable waxes that were recorded at USD 180.39 million; tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes, USD 69.75 million; and miscellaneous edible preparations, USD 16.48 million.
On the other hand, among European Union member countries, the Netherlands was reported as the country’s top major trading partner.
Data from the government’s central statistical authority, the total agricultural goods exported in EU member countries reached USD 494.18 million, with Netherlands as the top buyer with commodities spent for the Philippines at USD 274.60 million.
Second to the Netherlands was Spain, USD 54. 94 million; Italy, USD 52. 05 million; Germany with USD 40.16 revenue; UK and Northern Ireland having USD 32. 85 million; France, USD 13.15 million and other member countries with USD 26.43 million.
Products exported in EU countries include animal or vegetable fats and oils and their cleavage products; prepared edible fats; animal or vegetable waxes, USD 297.12 million; preparations of meat, of fish or of crustaceans, molluscs, and other aquatic invertebrates, USD 60.87 million; and preparations of vegetables, fruit, nuts or other parts of plants, USD 43.70 million.
In other development, for imports under ASEAN member countries, Vietnam accumulated the highest value with USD 420.38 million or 26.9 percent to the total USD 1.56 billion agricultural imports from ASEAN member countries in the second quarter of 2022.
Next to Vietnam is Indonesia with USD 391. 21 million; Malaysia, USD 370.05 million; Thailand, USD 215. 02 million; Singapore, USD 135.83 million; and other ASEAN countries having USD 30.22 million. Still under imports, Spain is leading in the EU member countries with import value of USD 114.82 million or a share of 24.8 percent to the total USD 462.57 million agricultural imports from EU member countries.
Products imported include meat and edible meat offal, USD 182.31 million; dairy produce; birds’ eggs; natural honey; edible products of animal origin, not elsewhere classified, USD 88.70 million; and residues and waste from the food industries; prepared animal fodder, USD 45.54 million.
How can we resolve the rice importation issue?
Currently, the country remains the most food-insecure country in Asia. The reason for that is that we relied more on imported food to feed the growing population.
With no clear policy or plan to improve the agriculture sector, the Philippines will be forever dependent on imports unless the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., will implement a drastic move that will benefit the country’s 111 million population.
For export matters, the Philippines has no problem. Big chunk of proceeds from exports is helping the country’s economy that was crippled by the pandemic. On a short term basis, to address the gaps in the shortage of food like rice for example, importation is the top easiest solution the central government can do to resolve the problem.
With 20 tropical storms hitting the country annually, some of which are devastating, Filipino farmers were always affected and that resulted in severe loss in the agricultural products. For example in 2020, typhoons that hit the country destroyed around 419, 560 MT of rice, as reported by the Department of Agriculture.
For a medium-term solution, the state should ensure enough funding intended for the agriculture sector. But this measure will only work yearly and need to renew the financial requirements for succeeding years.In the past 25 years, with domestic food shortages, the country imports 10% of its rice yearly, making the nation the world's largest rice importer.
However, the problem of food shortage that has been going on for decades, for example rice, can be resolved if the central government will aggressively take part in the food production system.The issue here is not the rice variety present in the market but the kind of current platform the government implements.
What the Philippine government needs is an enterprise system because admittedly, cooperative is not efficiently working although it should be the ideal.
For several years, the central government, like the Agriculture department, has been allotting a huge amount of their yearly budget to provide seedlings, fertilizers and farm equipment to its farmer groups across the nation. And this kind of measure has not contributed to increasing the production of farmers. At the end of the day, we resort to importation.
So to get rid of relying on food importation and possibly to regain its crown as the leading rice producer in Asia, the Philippine government should start by organizing the farmers.
Specifically, holding discussions with farmers who have more than 10-25 hectares of land to organize themselves and to merge with other farmers to reach 500 hectares in a certain location. This kind of setup is similar to big agribusiness.
Once they complete the 500 or 1000 hectares, the state should provide state of the art equipment, including silos as well as people that will help the farmers in their group.
Of course, this kind of undertaking will be handled by the farmers themselves. They will elect their own members of the board to handle the decision making. The government, on the other hand, will not touch the issue of the land tenure system. Only the production process, as well providing monetary for experts that will help in the operation.
In other words, what the central government must do is to control the production itself. None of the future harvest will be sold outside except to the government. And the state’s involvement for this kind of plan will only be three years. After three years, the government will exit and let the leaders of the farmers group handle all the operations. The experts and workers helping them from scratch in the operation will remain. The farmers themselves will take care of the compensation.
For me, having such a system for agricultural crops will dramatically increase the country’s production. This is what other countries were doing until now. Like Vietnam and Thailand. The good thing with Vietnam and Thailand, they have a strong presence of their government in food production.
In general, that plan is intended for the farmers themselves. The government will allow them to control the production but not abruptly. That’s why there’s a three-years to five years exit plan for the government. Once the government sees the good development, they can turn-over the operation with the farmers. Having 20 groups operational scattered all over the country will solve the rice importation issues.
That will be for medium and long term plans. Unless the government takes action, we cannot do away with importation.Another action the government can do is to strengthen its crackdown against corrupt government officials in the Bureau of Custom.
Under President Marcos Jr. 's predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, the smuggling of rice, poultry and other agricultural products were rampant. Farmers group called Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) cited that country lost about 300 million kilograms of rice to smugglers in 2020 alone.Worst, under Duterte who also claimed he is against corrupt government officials, not a single smuggler or government official linked in the illegal activity has been put to jail.
The central government should also look into this issue.
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