MANILA – The Philippines is expected to import less rice, as it focuses on the local production of the staple, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said Thursday.

The DA’s statement came after the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that the Philippines has overtaken China as the world’s top importer of rice.

The USDA, in its latest “Grain: World Markets and Trade” report, projected that the Philippine rice importation will hit 3.8 million metric tons (MMT) in marketing year 2023-2034, while China’s imports will drop to 3.5 MMT.

In a statement, DA Undersecretary for Rice Industry Development Leocadio Sebastian said the country’s rice importation for 2023 is expected to be lower than the USDA’s forecast.

“We expect to import much less than USDA’s 3.8 MMT projected rice import in 2023. This indicates that the volume we imported in 2022 was much more than the deficit,” Sebastian said

“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. 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,” he added.

Sebastian, in a Laging Handa briefing on Aug. 2, said the Philippines has a sufficient supply of rice, stressing that it is “more than enough” for the next few months.

In a sectoral meeting with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Aug. 29, the DA reported its projection that rice supply for the second semester would reach 10.15 MMT.

The DA noted that 2.53 MMT of the 10.15 MMT is ending stock from the first semester, while 7.20 MMT is the expected yield from local production and only 0.41 MMT is imported rice.

The total supply would be more than enough to cover the current demand of 7.76 MMT and will yield an ending stock of 2.39 MM that will last up to 64 days, according to DA report. (PNA)