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The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) on Thursday urged the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to double-check their estimated rice stock figures.
This, after the FFF expressed issues that the rice stock information could also be utilized by the federal government to justify its proposal to keep up low tariffs on rice imports in response to the Ukrainian disaster.
In Could 2021, President Duterte signed Govt Order 135 decreasing the tariffs on imports from non-Asean nations from 50 % to 35 %.
The FFF, in an announcement, questioned the latest PSA information displaying that the nation’s rice stock declined to a four-month low in January regardless of a file palay harvest final 12 months.
The FFF stated the PSA positioned the nation’s rice stock as of January 1, 2022 at 1.859 million tons, indicating an enormous 20-percent drop from inventory ranges initially of 2021. Shares have been reportedly depleted by over half one million tons within the month of December 2021 alone.
Primarily based on an evaluation of PSA information, the FFF stated, the sharp drop in inventories was because of a 9.4-percent spike in rice consumption in 2021, equal to 1.23 million tons.
“It’s troublesome to consider that Filipinos elevated their consumption of rice in 2021 contemplating that the nation was nonetheless underneath recurrent lockdowns because of the Delta and Omicron [Covid variants]. As well as, many individuals have been nonetheless out of labor and had restricted incomes to purchase extra rice,” stated FFF Nationwide Supervisor Raul Montemayor.
In line with Montemayor, palay harvest reached a historic excessive of 19.96 million tons in 2021. In the identical 12 months, he stated rice imports totaled 2.98 million tons, or 730,000 metric tons greater than in 2020.
“If we assume that per capita rice consumption remained fixed in 2021, then the DA’s estimate of palay manufacturing will need to have been overstated, or the PSA’s calculation of ending shares was faulty,” added Montemayor.
Citing import information from the Bureau of Customs, the farmers’ group stated the tariff discount was not in a position to enhance imports from non-Asean nations and cut back dependence on conventional suppliers akin to Vietnam and Thailand.
The group added non-Asean imports amounted to only one.78 % of whole imports in 2021, down from 2.36 % within the earlier 12 months, although nations like India and Pakistan have been aggressive in opposition to their Asean counterparts.
The FFF added that the decrease tariff on non-Asean rice imports will end in foregone tariff revenues of about P126 million yearly, an quantity that might be used for added help to rice farmers in accordance with the Rice Tariffication regulation.
The PSA information confirmed that rice shares in households reached 991,560 MT whereas these stored in business warehouses and Nationwide Meals Authority (NFA) warehouses reached 659,560 MT and 208,330 MT, respectively.
“Of the full rice shares stock, about 53.3 % have been from the households. The remaining 35.5 % and 11.2 % have been contributed by the business warehouses/wholesalers/retailers and NFA depositories, respectively,” PSA stated.
Additionally, the PSA report confirmed that rice stock throughout all sectors (households, business warehouses and NFA) declined each on an annual and month-to-month foundation.
“In all sectors, rice shares inventories posted annual decreases in January 2022. Declines have been at -23.1 % in households, -4.4 % in business warehouses/wholesalers/retailers, and -40.9 % in NFA depositories,” it stated.
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