Mary Jade Jadormio

FARM groups pressed for an additional 30-percent safeguard duty on rice imports after shipments exceeded the country’s supply gap and slashed farmers’ incomes by about P50 billion a year.

The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) and Magsasaka Party-list formally submitted the proposal to the Tariff Commission (TC).

The proposed levy would be imposed on top of the current 15-percent tariff on imported rice.

Rice arrivals reached 2.9 million metric tons in the first half of 2026.

That volume was already equivalent to almost 83 percent of the average annual imports recorded in the previous seven years.

FFF and Magsasaka said the surge pushed supply beyond the country’s actual shortfall and weighed on farmgate prices.

“Admittedly, we have to import rice because our local production is not enough,” FFF national manager Raul Montemayor said.

“The problem is that we are importing much more than we need. This results in oversupply which in turn brings down palay prices for farmers,” he added.

Annual rice imports averaged 3.446 million metric tons after the Rice Tariffication Law took effect in 2019.

The volume was nearly three times the average posted in the years immediately before the policy shift.

Imports now account for an average 23.5 percent of the country’s total rice requirement.

Local farmers’ market share fell to an average 76.5 percent from about 89.5 percent before the law took effect.

Magsasaka Chairman Argel Joseph Cabatbat said the proposed safeguard would raise the landed cost of imported rice to roughly the wholesale price of local rice sourced from palay bought at P25 per kilogram.

The two groups also proposed a modified Minimum Access Volume system to give the government tighter control over import arrivals.

The TC is expected to submit its findings and recommendations by September.

Published Date: August 4, 2026