Based on the US Department of Agriculture-Foreign Agricultural Services (USDA-FAS), the Philippines ranked one as World’s largest rice importer.
Based on the report, the Philippines outdo China in importing rice. The country allowed the unimpeded importation of rice in order to lower prices.
Respectively, report also forecast the country may reach three million tons by the end of the year, making the country as world’s largest rice importer. The said projection amounted a 58 percent increased from last year’s importation of 1.9 million.
As to compare its projection from 2017, the Philippines may acquire 275 percent growth.
The enactment of rice tariffication law, which enable the Philippines to import unlimited rice, attributed country’s importation of the crop to increase rapidly. To know more about the policy, please read the following https://www.trending.ph/2019/02/rice-tariffication-bill-enacted-as-law/ and https://www.trending.ph/2019/09/dof-usec-chua-explains-the-present-impact-of-rice-tariffication/ ).
On the other, China with 1.4 billion population deemed to import 2.3 million tons of rice. Currently, China is the top importer of rice globally.
On USDA-FAS projection last month, China and the Philippines tied for importing 3.1 million tons for 2019.
Despite the increase of importation, rice tariffication law attributed in lowering the food prices which resulted to decrease country’s inflation. At present, the inflation last month declined to 0.8 ( See report here https://www.trending.ph/2019/11/inflation-in-october-2019-eases-to-0-8-percent/ ).
“In terms of the prices of rice, Economic managers said the policy shift would bring down the prices of rice in the market. As of October, PSA data showed that the average retail price for regular milled and well-milled rice had already gone down to P37.22 and P41.89 a kilo, respectively. While these were lower by 14.3 percent and 18.6 percent from rates in the same period last year, these fell short of the National Economic and Development Authority’s projection that the cost of rice would go down to as low as P25 a kilo—lower by P2 against the NFA rice in the market,” report from Inquirer mentioned.
Apart from the projection of USDA-FAS rice importation, the international agency expected that local production may improved as well.
Source: https://business.inquirer.net/283145/ph-is-worlds-biggest-rice-importer-for-2019