Philippines : DA wants importers to share responsibility of maintaining rice buffer stock
The Department of Agriculture plans to amend the Rice Tariffication Law to require importers to help maintain the country’s rice buffer stock. Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said imports will stay private, but responsibility will be shared with the National Food Authority under a controlled model, ensuring a stable 20-day supply.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) is proposing to require rice importers to share the responsibility of maintaining the country’s rice buffer stock through an amendment to the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).
The DA, citing a recent Senate Committee on Agriculture hearing, said on Tuesday that Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. has clarified that the Agriculture Department’s push to restore the key regulatory powers of the National Food Authority (NFA) will not mean it will once again have the sole authority to import rice.
Rice importation will remain with the private sector, he said, but importers should be required to share the responsibility of maintaining the country’s buffer stock.
“They have to have skin in the game,” said Tiu Laurel, adding, “If we aim to have a 20-day rice buffer stock, we’re thinking of a 50-50 split between the NFA and the private sector.”
Under the proposed setup, rice imports will follow a “controlled model” similar to the sugar import program of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), where only qualified importers are given import allocations.
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Source : GMA
