The Philippines’ rice industry is in danger of being “drowned out by cheap imports”, according to a new report, with experts also warning that prolonged policy inertia could affect the country’s food security.
The report, produced by the Integrated Rural Development Foundation, said policy failures and under-investment had pushed the country’s farming industry into its “most vulnerable position in decades”, according to The Manila Times.
The Philippines became the world’s top rice importer in 2024, with imports hitting a record 4.7 million metric tons. In March last year, the annual rate of increase in rice prices hit a 15-year high of 24.4 per cent. Households were badly hit in the country, where rice is a staple.
The slashing of tariffs on imported rice from 35 per cent to just 15 per cent last year was among the factors to blame, the report said.
Decades of unchecked land conversion, which saw farmland subdivided and replaced with commercial real estate, have also exacerbated import reliance – causing the loss of 3.3 million metric tons in potential milled rice annually.
“Our local rice industry is being drowned by a flood of cheap imports,” said former university professor Teodoro Mendoza, one of the report’s authors.
