Farmers’ group hits Marcos rice import suspension

By Juliane Judilla

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has announced a 60-day suspension of rice importation starting Sept. 1, 2025, in a bid to address the plunging prices of locally harvested palay.

The decision, announced Wednesday, Aug. 7, aims to support local farmers who have been facing severe financial strain due to depressed palay prices exacerbated by rice imports, according to Malacañang.

Presidential Communications Office Secretary Dave Gomez confirmed the suspension, stating it is a measure “to protect local farmers reeling from low palay prices during this current harvest season.”

Gomez also noted that Marcos arrived at the decision after consulting with his Cabinet during a five-day state visit to India.

While some local farmer groups welcomed the move, others criticized it as a temporary fix that fails to tackle the root causes of the rice crisis.

The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) condemned the move as a “desperate” and “cosmetic policy reform” that does little to address the long-term impacts of the government’s pro-importation stance.

“The suspension is merely for show,” said KMP chairperson Danilo Ramos.

“The real issue remains the Rice Liberalization Law (RLL), which continues to flood the market with cheap imported rice, hurting local farmers and driving down palay prices.”

Enacted in 2019 under the Duterte administration, the RLL removed quantitative import restrictions and replaced them with tariff measures to keep rice prices affordable for consumers.

However, farmer groups say the policy has undermined domestic rice production and left local producers vulnerable to market shocks.

“It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a large, deep wound,” said KMP’s Ronnie Manalo, a farmer from Bulacan.

“The local rice industry is being strangled by both foreign rice cartels and the unchecked importation that this law allows,” he added.

KMP data show that in the six years since the RLL took effect, palay production has declined despite billions of pesos in agricultural subsidies.

An estimated 200,000 hectares of palay farms have been abandoned, and average farmer income has fallen by PHP6,268 per hectare.

KMP also reported that the country’s rice import dependency rose from 14% in 2018 to 23% in 2024.

Meanwhile, more than 6,000 rice mills closed between 2012 and 2022, with over 1,000 barangays losing access to rice milling facilities.

Earlier this year, the Department of Agriculture proposed increasing the tariff on imported rice from 15% to 25% to help local producers.

Agriculture Assistant Secretary Joycel Panlilio said the higher tariff would give immediate relief to farmers by raising the cost of imported rice, enabling them to sell at more competitive prices.

Marcos, however, deferred the tariff hike, saying it was too early to consider and that the import suspension would serve as a more immediate intervention.

“We will still see if we need to resort to that,” Gomez said, referring to the proposed tariff increase.

KMP continues to push for the full repeal of the RLL, calling it a “fundamentally flawed” policy that should be replaced by legislation supporting local rice farmers.

The group is advocating for the passage of the proposed Rice Industry Development Act (RIDA) and the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB), along with nationwide land reform and agricultural industrialization.

“The rice crisis is part of a larger agricultural crisis rooted in a feudal system,” Ramos said.

“It is being exacerbated by policies that benefit foreign traders and local rice cartels at the expense of our farmers.”