The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Monday clarified reports that the Philippines has already surpassed China in terms of rice imports this year following a report released by the United States Department of Agriculture-Foreign Agricultural Service.

In a radio interview, DA Asec. Noel Reyes said that the USDA-FAS is using a different set of statistics in its projection compared to the “official” data being used by the DA which is provided by and based on real time data from the Bureau of Customs.

He also noted that as of 23 October, the total imports reached 1.87 million metric tons, compared to China’s 2.5 million metric tons.

“That’s not true… they’re basing their information on a similar figure that we don’t have,” Reyes said. “Our imports were less than 2 million officially as of October. China is still bigger. As opposed to the USDA-FAS report. We’re saying, so it won’t be alarming, China remains the biggest importer.”

The rice tariffication law meant to stabilize price of the staple grain, liberalized rice importation in the country by replacing quotas with tax and the measure also mandated the creation of a Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) worth P10 billion to help palay farmers compete.

Local farmers, however, complained that prices of rough rice or palay plummeted to as low as P7 per kilo after the measure was implemented.

The RCEF is “poured back” to farmers in the form of machinery, seed development, training and credit assistance, among others, Reyes said.