The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Thursday countered the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) report that the country overtook China as the top rice importer in the world.

Based on the USDA's "Grain: World Markets and Trade" report, the Philippines went ahead of China as it approved around 3,800 metric tons (MT) of rice from January 2022 to December 2023.

In a statement, DA Undersecretary for Rice Industry Development Leocadio Sebastian said they expect to import less than the reported 3,800 MT this year.

“This indicates that the volume we imported in 2022 was much more than the deficit,” he explained.

Sebastian said the agriculture department also foreseen that there will be less import due to the “intensified efforts” to boost local rice production.

“The uncertainty of depending on external sources for our staple and the high price of imported rice makes it imperative for us to produce more locally,” the DA Undersecretary added.

President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos, who currently sits as the DA Secretary, recently pronounced that one of the biggest lessons the Philippines learned from the COVID-19 pandemic was that importation is not a wise choice.

Speaking before the 10th Asia Summit in Singapore, he mentioned the problems posed by the pandemic such as the supply chain and agricultural production hence the country's dependence on importation.

"I said, we cannot now continue to depend on importation which is what has happened for the Philippines. In the past years, it became the easy way out. Just import more, import more rice, import more corn, import more everything," Marcos said.