USDA: Philippines to takeover China as world’s top rice importer

Despite rising global rice prices, the Philippines is set to overtake China as the world’s top importer of the food staple, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

In the September edition of its “Grain: World Markets and Trade” report, the USDA projected the Philippines to import the highest volume of rice at 3.8 million metric tons (MT) of rice for Trade Year 2023/2024.

The USDA defines a trade or marketing year as the 12-month period at the onset of the main harvest, when the crop is marketed, meaning it is consumed, traded, or stored.

This is the same level of volume forecasted by the USDA in the August edition of its world grains trade report.

The Philippines’ rice importation volume for 2023/2024 is higher than China’s 3.5 million MT, which is lower than the 4 million MT projected in August.

The country is also the sixth top rice consumer with a projected consumption volume of 16.4 million MT.

China and India are the top rice consumers with 152 million MT and 115.5 million MT, respectively.

While the Philippines is seen to be the top rice importer, USDA said, “[T]his year, it is delaying purchases, awaiting lower prices.”

The American agriculture agency said rice export prices are at their highest in 15 years as top rice exporter India “sent shockwaves through the global rice market since its July export ban on milled white rice and subsequent August export tax on parboiled rice and minimum export price for basmati.”

“The absence of India’s white rice from the global market is far more significant now than it was 15 years ago,” USDA said.

Sought for comment, Agriculture Undersecretary for Rice Industry Development Leocadio Sebastian told GMA News Online “what I can say on the USDA projections [is] we expect to import much less than USDA's 3.8 million MT projected imports of rice in 2023.”

“This indicates that the volume we imported in 2022 was much more than the deficit. We also expect that with the intensified efforts to produce more rice locally, we will import less than the projected 3.8 MMT in 2024,” Sebastian said.

“The uncertainty of depending on external sources for our staple and the high price of imported rice makes it imperative for us to produce more locally,” the DA official said.

Rice dependence

Meanwhile, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., during the 10th Asia Summit in Singapore on Wednesday, said the Philippines could ill afford to continue its dependence on importation to have a sufficient supply of food at affordable prices. 

“But this is a lesson that we immediately learn. I said, we cannot now continue to depend on importation which is what has happened for the Philippines. In the past years, it became the easy way out," Marcos said.

"Just import more, import more rice, import more corn, import more everything. And the pandemic showed us that this was not a wise choice to have made," the President said.

Last week, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the department is proposing a reduction of the 35% rice import tariff rates "both ASEAN and MFN [most favored nation] rates, temporarily to 0% or maximum of 10% to arrest the surge in rice prices."

Diokno said rice was the biggest contributor to inflation and emphasized the need to propose a tariff reduction for rice imports.

The rising retail prices compelled Marcos to order the imposition of price ceilings on regular and well-milled rice at P41 per kilo and P45 per kilo, respectively.

The President had said the measure was only temporary and referred to rice imports that would soon arrive.

Marcos has blamed smugglers and hoarders for the increase in the price of rice.

The Department of Agriculture in mid-August recommended the importation of 500,000 metric tons of rice to address the thin supply in the buffer stock. —VAL/RSJ, GMA Integrated News