15 September 2025
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture admitted that agricultural trade has become import-dependent, while export growth has stagnated over the last 10 years.
During the agency’s House budget hearing on Monday, September 15, DA Undersecretary Asis Perez presented the country’s agricultural trade balance 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), who chairs the appropriations panel, stopped Perez to point out that it is not a situation the country should simply accept.
“There needs to be interventions on the part of DA and NIA (National Irrigation Administration) 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 responded by clarifying his earlier statement, saying the country’s current import-dependent state 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 P354.68 per day and remain among the poorest, with 10.9 million employed in the sector as of June 2025, mostly in rice and fisheries.
Three-fourths were imports
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), imports accounted for 71.5% of the country’s total agricultural trade in 2024, valued at $19.46 billion, while exports were only $7.75 billion.
Although exports grew by 20.6% in 2024 from the previous year, they still lag far behind imports, which also rose by 8.6%. 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.
On the export side, the country shipped $1.07 billion worth of goods to ASEAN neighbors, mostly animal, vegetable, and microbial fats and oils.
Exports barely grew since 2013
The DA’s chart shows exports had barely risen since 2013, when they totaled $6.4 billion. Imports, meanwhile, 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. The DA previously defended the purchases, citing storm damage to crops and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s 2024 order to cut rice tariffs to 15% from 35% to temper prices.
Despite the imports, retail rice prices remain high. As of September 14, special rice sold for P56 per kilo and premium for P50.67 in Metro Manila—well above imported premium rice at P44.71.
The trend persists even with the DA’s phased price ceiling on imported rice, reflecting consumers’ preference for premium or imported rice.
DA pushes for restrictions
But in Monday’s budget hearing, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. told lawmakers that the importation of rice should not be liberalized without qualitative and quantitative restrictions.
“Talagang hindi pwede maliberalize ang importation ng bigas nang walang qualitative and quantitative restriction. ‘Yan ang problema. Masyadong maraming imported rice na pumasok sa ating bansa kaya bumagsak ang palay,” he told lawmakers.
(Rice importation really cannot be liberalized without qualitative and quantitative restrictions. That’s the problem. Too much imported rice entered the country, causing palay prices to drop.)
This came just a month after 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 P12 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.
“Kaya kailangan ma-restrict ‘yan dahil anong pasok ng imported rice, tuloy tuloy lang ang benta, tapos di na nabibili yung local rice,” Tiu Laurel said.
(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.)
The DA chief said that whether the Rice Tariffication Law is repealed or amended, what matters is placing restrictions on rice imports, which he believes are currently unchecked.
He added that, for now, the agency can only buy palay from local farmers through the National Food Authority (NFA). The challenge, however, is that warehouses are already full, making it difficult to release buffer stocks.
These stocks, however, are being sold at Kadiwa centers under the government’s P20-per-kilo rice program for marginalized sectors, which President Marcos has vowed to sustain until 2028.
The DA has a proposed P135.4 billion budget under the 2026 National Expenditure Program, a large portion of which has been earmarked for locally-funded and foreign-assisted programs such as the repair and construction of farm-to-market roads.