Rice Tariffication Law Results In Low Prices

The Department of Agriculture (DA) stands firm that the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) is a game-changing reform policy that broke the decades-long inefficiency of the country’s rice sector and enhanced its prospect of being globally competitive.

Photo Insert: Regular-milled rice is now cheaper, at P36 to P38 per kilogram (kg), which is P2 to P8 less than in 2018.

“The RTL is a transformative reform that benefits all industry stakeholders – most particularly farmers and consumers – as it liberalizes rice trade by imposing tariffs on imports in lieu of quantitative restrictions, and provides a yearly P10-billion budget through the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) for six years to empower Filipino rice farmers and enable them to compete with their ASEAN counterparts,” said Agriculture Secretary William Dar.

“In particular, rice is now cheaper than during pre-RTL years, benefiting millions of consumers, and that farmers are harvesting and earning more per hectare,” the DA chief added.

“Despite the blabber and noise by detractors, we see the RTL and RCEF as testaments to what a sustainable policy can do to help ensure food security for more than 100 million Filipinos,” said Secretary Dar.

Citing data collated by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and DA-Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service (AMAS), he added that the RTL has significantly brought down the retail prices of rice.

In particular, regular-milled rice is now cheaper, at P36 to P38 per kilogram (kg), which is P2 to P8 less than in 2018; well-milled rice is also cheaper by P2 to P5; and premium and special rice are sold P1 to P6/kg less than in 2018, according to PSA and DA-AMAS empirical data.

In addition, the sustained implementation of the RCEF as it nears the mid-term, in combination with the DA Philippine Integrated Rice Program (PIRP), has achieved several milestones, notably: average palay production has increased by 17 percent (%) to 4.26 metric tons (MT) per hectare (ha), from 3.64 MT/ha in 42 RCEF provinces; average production cost was reduced by P1, from P12.52/kg to P11.52/kg; and seed requirement per hectare using mechanical seeder decreased by 67%, from 90 kg to 30 kg; and by 33% to 60 kg via manual method.

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