No Rice Crisis But 'We May Have To Import': Marcos

President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. assured there is no looming rice crisis in the country although there is an expected decrease in supply in the coming months.

"No, I don't see a rice crisis. There is a chance that the supply would be reduced because of simultaneous events that will require it," said Marcos, who is also the agriculture secretary, in this report.

The Chief Executive said the government is keeping an eye on rice production levels before the harvest season and expressed optimism that there would be enough rice supply and its prices would remain stable "if all things remain equal."

"If we harvest, there would be no problem in the supply. It's precisely as you mentioned. It is in the dry part where we are waiting for the last planting to be harvested. That's what we are looking for," Marcos explained.

"We may have to import... We're keeping that option open," he pointed out.

The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) earlier warned of a possible rice shortage during the off-season from July to September. FFF said that while the current rice supply is enough until June, the price of regular rice had already reached P45 per kilo. The group noted that this was the same scenario in 2018 though, at that time, the National Food Authority (NFA) still had the power to import.

The passage of the Rice Tariffication Act in 2019 took away NFA's power to import as it liberalized the importation of rice in the country. FFF called on the government to place measures to avoid another rice crisis and warned that hoarders might take advantage of the situation similar to what happened to onions whose prices shoot up due to a confluence of factors including import delays and inflation. Last December, onions became more expensive than meat when a kilo of this main food ingredient spiked at P700 per kilo.

Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture (DA) assured that the rice supply will remain stable even as concerns arose due to the coming El Niño phenomenon.

The DA has reactivated its National El Niño Task Force to prepare for the coming dry months and is eyeing the irrigation of 1.5 million hectares of land in partnership with the National Irrigation Administration.