Economic Crisis

Philippine Rice Crisis

The Philippines was once the master of growing rice, this is supported by the fact that the Ifugao, an independent agricultural society in the nation, are the world's best rice farmers. But this is more likely to change after the world calls the Philippines the number one rice importer in the world.

The Philippines has been buying rice from it's neighboring countries such as Vietnam, Thailand and China and other countries like The US and Pakistan.

Importing almost 10% of the nation's annual requirement, an official said that the Philippines would keep on importing rice until the year 2010.

The cost of growing rice, because of too much fuel and fertilizer prices, has been rising faster than the wages that the consumers are receiving from their jobs. NFA (National Food Authority) rice priced at P18.25 per kilogram is no longer available in markets and has been replaced with the P25-per-kilogram US rice.

Further relief will be given to transport groups from soaring prices of fuel, rice, electricity and other basic necessities through access to NFA rice, the Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Authority (LTFRB) has announced, May 01, 2008.

For the past few months, the police has raided warehouses and threw dozens of hoarders to jail.

According to Yahoo!Finance, the Philippine Government announced that Vietnam won the bid of being the nation's primary rice provider.

Vietnam will ship 102,000 tonnes at US$1,200 per tonne, the highest rate ever in the country's export history.

The government is now making sure that only the poorest will get subsidized rice, as prices of the commodity continues to increase.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

It is good to import rice from other countries so the connection of the two parties will develop and be strong.

I suggest that we produce rice so that we can claim our title as the country importing rice to the other countries. If we produce rice in our country and not depending in importing from other country, the Philippines will not be known as the no.1 importer of rice. 

It is bad to hear that the Philippines known as the exporter of rice turns into importer of rice. The government don't need to import rice anymore. They only need to think a way to produce rice from our country even the basic necessities is expensive to pay. They must think our credibility as a country and not only depending on the other countries. We must stand up on our own foot and fight for our credibility as a country.