DA: Imported rice sold at P43/kilo by July
Effective July 1, the Department of Agriculture (DA) will lower the maximum suggested retail price (MSRP) for imported rice from the current P45 to P43 per kilogram.
In a statement on Sunday, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the price ceiling reduction was in response to the recent decline in global rice prices.
Tiu Laurel said the DA expects price adjustments for rice sold through the Rice-for-All program, which sells well-milled rice from rice importers and local traders.
Under this program, the DA sells 5 percent broken rice at P43 per kilo, 25 percent broken at P35 per kg and 100 percent broken at P33 per kg.
The DA instituted the MSRP in January to mitigate rising retail prices on the staple food, with President Marcos having reduced the import duty on rice to 15 percent from 35 percent and prices of the staple declining in the global market.
The MSRP for 5 percent broken rice was initially set at P58 per kg on Jan. 20, which the agency reduced gradually until the price ceiling reached P45 per kg on March 31.
UN rice data
“This move coincided with a drop in world rice prices following India’s lifting of its export ban on non-basmati rice and waning in demand after last year’s El Niño episode,” the DA said.
Data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations stated that the price of Vietnamese 5 percent broken rice reached $397.7 per metric ton (MT) as of May, an almost 30 percent decrease from $568 per MT in the same period a year ago.
Thailand 25 percent broken rice price stood at $414.8 per MT, down by 30.1 percent from $593 per MT.
As of June 4, Metro Manila markets are selling imported regular milled rice at P35 to P45 per kg, lower than the P49-P51 per kg in the same period last year, based on the DA’s price monitoring.
Imported well-milled rice retailed between P38 and P48 per kg, also a decrease from last year’s P52-P55 a kilo.
Subsidized program
Introducing the MSRP for imported rice and the Rice-for-All program are among the strategies employed by the DA to address elevated retail rice prices.
In May, the DA launched the subsidized rice program in Cebu, allowing eligible beneficiaries to purchase rice for P20 per kg.
In line with President Marcos’ 2022 election campaign promise to have rice sold at P20 per kilo, the DA is undertaking the initiative’s pilot test until December, which it expects to benefit 14 million Filipinos nationwide.
President Marcos had instructed the DA to implement the program until the end of his term. Tiu Laurel said this was viable.
“I wouldn’t have pursued this program—especially not the President—if it hadn’t been thoroughly studied. He spent three years examining it before we began implementing it last month,” the agriculture chief said.
