WHY EXACTLY IS THE PHILIPPINES THE WORLD'S TOP RICE IMPORTER?

In 2023, the Philippines was named the world’s top rice importer, overtaking global behemoth China. According to Statista, which based its information on reports by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Philippines imported 3.8 million metric tons (MMT) of rice in the 2022-2023 marketing year, compared to China’s 2.8 MMT. 

The USDA further said that the country is expected to keep its title as the world’s leading rice importer in 2024, with shipments expected to increase to 4.1 MMT. 

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This information has led many to ask the obvious questions: why is this so? The Philippines has traditionally been known as an agriculture-based economy, not to mention the fact that Filipinos, like many Asians, are known to be voracious consumers of rice; why can’t we then produce enough for our own needs without having to import from elsewhere?

Why Does the Philippines Import Rice? 

The answer to this question was the subject of a book published by the International Rice Research Institute called, Why Does the Philippines Import Rice? Edited by David Dawe, Piedad F. Moya, and Cheryll B. Casiwan and first published in 2004, the book delves deep into the country’s rice economy, with the analysis and conclusions informed by quantitative data instead of mere conjecture. 

"Many answers have been given to this question, many of which injure national pride by alluding to bad politicians, corruption, incompetence, or laziness," the book says. "But the real answer is not so bad: in a word, it is geography.

"The Philippines imports rice because it is a nation of islands without any major river deltas like those in Thailand and Vietnam. The major traditional exporters are all on the Southeast Asian mainland (Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar), while the countries that have been consistently importing rice for more than a hundred years (Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Japan, Korea, and Malaysia) are all islands or narrow peninsulas." 

Before delving deeper into the geography issue, the book makes it a point to debunk commonly held (but often mistaken) beliefs about why the country imports rice. Loss of land to urbanization, for one, might be an easy scapegoat, but according to the book, "the effects are small and are more than offset by cropland expansion elsewhere."

"Some may think the Filipino farmer is simply backward and cannot produce rice efficiently," Dawe writes. "But a detailed survey of farmers in the various rice bowls of Asia found that Filipino farmers were among the leaders in reducing insecticide use, and have progressed farther in mechanizing land preparation and postharvest operations than their counterparts in any other developing Asian country except Thailand." 

According to Dawe, research shows that most countries in Asia where rice is a staple food are long-term members of one of two groups: importers or exporters.

"The fact that countries remain in one club or the other for long periods of time suggests that some deep force is at work," Dawe says. "That deep force is endowments of land and water." 

In general, rice-exporting countries have lots of land and river deltas suitable for farming, and these countries are all located in mainland Southeast Asia: Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar. Thailand, the book says, has four times the arable land per person versus the Philippines.

In contrast, "Consistent importers have less arable land per person and more varied landscapes favoring such alternatives as corn, oil palm, or coconut. These countries are all islands (Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, Sri Lanka) or, in the case of Malaysia, part island and part narrow peninsula."

And, in case people think that rice importation is a relatively recent phenomenon, research done by IRRI says that the Philippines has been importing rice almost every year since 1869. Similarly, the Indonesian island of Java, where most of that country’s rice exports end up, has been a rice importer since the 16th century. 

"The fact that all of these countries are islands and have imported rice so consistently for so long, despite some being rich and some being poor, strongly suggests that government policies are not the explanation," Dawe writes. 

But it’s not just the absence of mighty river deltas that explains why the Philippines is a net importer of rice. As one of the most disaster-stricken countries in the world, the Philippines is hit with numerous typhoons every year, which, according to IRRI, makes rice production that much riskier and more difficult. It’s another geography-related issue that countries like Thailand don’t have to deal with as much. 

"In addition, the Philippines’ rice sector has high labor costs that must be reduced (without reducing wages) in order to increase productivity," Dawe adds.

Since the book was published in 2004, the country has achieved significant strides in rice self-sufficiency. According to Statista, since 2016, about five million hectares of land nationwide have been dedicated to cultivating palay, which have resulted in a yield of 20 million metric tons of unmilled rice in 2022. In 2018, Congress passed RA 11203, or the Rice Trade Liberalization Law, which effectively removed trade restrictions and brought rice prices down (although many would argue that it’s still not low enough, which is still a sore point for many of our kababayans today). Modern agricultural practices have also increased production from the estimated 2.4 million rice farmers in the country as of 2020.

Still, despite these efforts, the Philippines continues to be net rice importer, and, as IRRI explained, might remain so for the foreseeable future. The country’s rice self-sufficiency ratio, or the percentage to which the country’s domestic production can meet its domestic requirement, was at 85 percent in 2020. It was down to 81.5 percent in 2021 and fell further to 77 percent in 2022, the lowest in nearly a quarter of a century.

"Is there any way to lessen dependence on imports without further raising prices and harming poor consumers?" the book asks. "One possibility is reduced population growth, but this debate centers on issues larger than rice self-sufficiency. The best way to sustainably increase production is to invest in agricultural research and transportation infrastructure, thereby providing farmers with more and better options in both production and marketing.

"However, the fundamental factors behind Philippine rice imports—relatively small amounts of land and a lack of large river deltas—can’t be changed. In trying to achieve self-sufficiency, the Philippines is fighting a battle against nature that its exporting neighbors are spared."

2024-07-03T02:18:02Z dg43tfdfdgfd