THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Wednesday it will reduce the maximum suggested retail price (MSRP) for imported rice to P45 per kilo on March 31, citing declining global rice prices.
The DA said in a statement that the lifting of India’s year-long ban on the export of non-basmati white rice has pushed global rice prices to their lowest levels in over two years.
Some rice varieties are now priced below $380 per metric ton, it said.
“At this level, the retail price of imported rice has now decreased by P19 per kilo compared to its price before we implemented the MSRP on Jan. 20,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr. said.
The lowering of the MSRP has raised concerns among farmers that the farmgate price of palay (unmilled rice) will fall further, as traders grow reluctant to carry domestic rice because of competition from cheaper imports.
The DA said before the MSRP was imposed, imported rice was selling for P64 per kilo “despite global rice prices softening, tariff reductions, and a stronger peso.”
The agency first implemented the MSRP for imported rice on Jan. 20 at initial setting of P58 per kilo. It was further lowered to P52 on Feb. 15, and to P49 on March 1.
The DA said earlier this month it will likely lower the MSRP at the end of March if the current trend in world rice prices persists and the peso remains strong.
Prior to the MSRP reduction to P49 on March 1, the price of rice from Vietnam with 5% broken-grain content had fallen to $490 per MT, about $200 cheaper compared with December, according to the DA.
Vietnam is the Philippines’ main overseas rice supplier.
The landed cost of imported rice in March for the DT8 variety was P32-34 per kilo, according to Food Terminal, Inc.
The DA in January declared a national rice emergency, citing an “extraordinary” spike in the price of the staple grain despite lower tariffs on imports.
Food security emergency declarations are a power given to the DA by Republic Act 12708 or the Agricultural Tariffication Act, which would trigger the release of rice reserves from National Food Authority (NFA) warehouses to stabilize prices.
Inflation eased to 2.1% in February from 2.9% in January as rice inflation dropped to 4.9%, the sharpest decline since April 2020.
The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) said on Tuesday that some farmers are selling freshly harvested palay for as little as P14 per kilo.
FFF National Director Raul Q. Montemayor said the situation of palay farmers will worsen if the government continues to impose reduced tariffs on rice imports.
Issued on June 20, 2024 Executive Order No. 62 reduced the tariffs for all rice imports to 15% from the 35% rate charged to grain from Southeast Asia.
“The strategy largely failed as importers and traders pocketed most of the savings from the tariff cuts instead of passing them on to consumers,” the FFF said.
Rice imports hit an all-time high of nearly 4.7 million metric tons (MT) in 2024 in response to a shortfall in domestic stocks and the resulting high prices.
In mid-January, Mr. Laurel said the government does not plan to resort to imports to bring down rice prices, which he blamed on profiteering.
The FFF noted that while inflows seem to have slackened in the first quarter of 2025, international prices have significantly declined, with the landed cost of Vietnam rice with 5% broken content amounting to just over P24 per kilo this month.
“Palay traders are probably anticipating that the prices of imported rice will continue to fall, so they are playing safe by buying low from farmers,” FFF Board Chairman Leonardo Q. Montemayor said.
The Tariff Commission on March 28 will hear a petition by FFF to restore rice import tariffs to 35% for Southeast Asian grain.
The FFF has also asked the commission to impose a 50% tariff on grain from all other countries of origin.
The FFF argued that restoring the 35% rice tariff will not unduly raise rice prices given the downtrend in import prices.
Rice imports fell 46% year on year to 641,000 MT in the year to date ending March 13.
The FFF, meanwhile, said the NFA remains unable to absorb the domestic harvest due to congestion in its warehouses, lack of drying and other post-harvest facilities, and limited procurement budget.
The NFA earlier this month said it is undertaking a P10-billion modernization program aimed at enhancing rice storage, building new rice mills, and upgrading drying facilities to improve the rice harvest recovery rate. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza