Department of Agriculture seeks import limits

For the longest time, farmers and fisherfolk have been denouncing the surge in importations of almost all food items in the country, to a point of robbing them outright of their share of the local market.

But most of the time, their clamor had fallen on deaf ears. This is just from legitimate and legal imports. Smuggling, on the other hand, has virtually killed the farming and fishing sectors. 

Now, at last, the Department of Agriculture cites the unfairness of surging imports to local farmers and fishermen and is urging for limits to importation in a last ditch effort to save the total collapse of the agriculture sector, which has been sliding so deep in the abyss of government neglect.

At te budget hearing last Monday, the DA noted that growth of the sector has stagnated in the last 10 years resulting in a lopsided trade balance with imports soaring while local production has almost halted. 

DA Undersecretary for Planning Asis Perez, citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, said exports were stagnant while imports surged to 71.5 percent of total agricultural trade in 2024 worth $19.46 billion, while, which grew by 20.6 percent that year accounted only for $7.75 billion. This widened the trade deficit by 1.9% to $11.71 billion.

Despite being a rice-producing nation, the Philippines has consistently ranked among the top importers of “cereals,” which include rice and corn. This made up nearly one-fourth of total imports. 

In 2024, cereal imports climbed further, rising by 29.9% in metric tons, with Vietnam, the United States, and Australia as the main sources.

Export wise, the country shipped $1.07 billion worth of goods to ASEAN neighbors, mostly animal, vegetable, and microbial fats and oils. DA’s chart shows a growing agricultural trade deficit from 2006 to 2024.

“You can see clearly that in the last years, trade grew, but the trade is [lopsided]. There’s been an increase in imports, let’s say, in the last 10 years, with export not growing,” he told the appropriations committee.

“We are not in a very good state and that we have to accept,” he added. 

Rep. Mikaela Suansing (Nueva Ecija, 1st District), appropriations panel chair, said this situation is unacceptable.

“There needs to be interventions on the part of DA and NIA (National Irrigation Administration)1 to ensure we are able to increase the productivity of our farmers so that eventually we will not be a net importer anymore,” she said. 

Perez said dependence on imports should be “addressed,” especially as poverty among farmers and fisherfolk remains above the national average. 

In 2023, poverty incidence among farmers and fisherfolk reached 27% in 2023, compared with the 15% national average.

He also said agricultural workers earn an average of ₱354.68 per day and remain among the poorest, with 10.9 million employed in the sector as of June 2025, mostly in rice and fisheries.

Exports barely rose since 2013

The DA’s chart showed that export barely rose since 2013, when they totaled $6.4 billion. Imports, however, more than doubled in the same period, from $7.93 billion in 2013 to nearly $20 billion in 2024, widening the trade deficit.

The Bureau of Plant Industry said rice imports alone reached 4.68 million metric tons last year, up 30% from 2023, Business World reported. The DA previously justified such imports because of the damage by storms and the reduction in import tariffs from 35 to 15 percent in 2024.

Despite surging imports, retail prices of rice stayed high. As of September 14, special rice sold for ₱56/kg and premium for ₱50.67/kg in Metro Manila—well above imported premium rice at ₱44.71.

The trend persists even with the DA’s phased price ceiling on imported rice, reflecting consumers’ preference for premium or imported rice.

No to liberalized imports

DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. told legislators that rice imports should not be liberalized without safety nets (qualitative and quantitative restrictions) “Too much imported rice entered the country, causing palay prices to drop.”

In July, President Marcos ordered a 60-day suspension of rice imports starting September 1, following reports that local farmers had been forced to sell palay for as low as ₱12 per kilo in some regions like Calabarzon in August.

There are also discussions on restoring rice tariffs to 35%, a move several farmers’ groups have been advocating for. 

“That’s why it needs to be restricted, because with the continuous entry of imported rice, sales keep going while local rice is no longer being bought.”

Regardless if the Rice Tariffication Law is amended or repealed, what matters is putting restrictions on rice imports, which Laurel believes, is currently unchecked.

For now, the NFA warehouses are full from palay bought from local farmers and it is difficult to release the buffer stock.  “These stocks, however, are being sold at Kadiwa centers under the government’s ₱20-per-kilo rice program for marginalized sectors, which President Marcos has vowed to sustain until 2028.”

The DA is asking for a ₱135.4 billion budget under the 2026 National Expenditure Program, the bulk of which would be earmarked for locally-funded and foreign-assisted programs such as repairing and constructing farm-to-market roads.