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Manila and Islamabad are confident that they could seal a deal by June 2025 if not earlier, through which Pakistan will ship to the Philippines at least 1 million metric tons (MT) of milled rice to augment the archipelago’s supply.
In a statement on Friday, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said it hopes a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between both parties will be finalized by the first half of 2025.
READ: PH eyes deal with India, Pakistan on rice imports
According to Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., he met recently with Pakistan’s Ambassador to Manila Imtiaz Kazi, who proposed such a volume “at a competitive price.”
One million MT is about a quarter of the Philippines’ rice import needs.
According to the DA, the Pakistani envoy sought confirmation on the continuation of the reduced tariff on rice imports, which Tiu Laurel said could be extended until 2028 “if deemed necessary.”
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15% tariff
President Marcos signed last June Executive Order (EO) No. 62, which reduced import duties on milled rice to 15 percent until 2028 from 35 percent previously to manage food prices while tempering the inflationary pressure on various commodities.
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EO 62 calls for a periodic review of rice tariffs every four months, as directed by the President. Depending on the assessment, the 15-percent tariff on rice may be retained, increased or decreased. But Tiu Laurel said recently the DA will not recommend raising the import duties on imported rice anytime soon.
The announcement came after the DA disclosed it is negotiating with Pakistan and India to secure a “stable supply” of 2 million MT of rice, in a move to create a level playing field among rice-supplying nations.
“We want them to compete for our market,” Tiu Laurel said earlier, adding the agency was working on a similar arrangement with India.
Last November, the Pakistani envoy said that his country, the third-largest supplier of imported rice to the archipelago, sought to increase its share in the local rice market through a partnership with the Philippines on rice importation.
Back then, Kazi said traders from Pakistan seek “stability and certainty” on the quantity of rice to be shipped to the Philippines, citing fluctuating tariffs levied by the government and competitive global prices.
“We want to increase that share, provided we can also provide [a] stable good supply of rice and that depends on mutual concessions for each other, which means that the Philippines should guarantee us that they want this much rice every year,” he added.
Pakistan has been exporting rice to the archipelago since 2019, the year rice trading in the Philippines was liberalized.
The Philippines’ other sources of rice imports are Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, India, China, Japan, Cambodia, Italy and Spain.
Vietnam remains the leading exporter of rice to the Philippines with 3.44 million MT, accounting for 76.7 percent of the 4.48 million MT of rice sourced from abroad as of Dec. 12, data from the Bureau of Plant Industry showed.
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At the same time, Thailand and Pakistan supplied 567,913.22 MT and 244,859.48 MT, respectively.
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