Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said rice imports from the January to June period which were still levied with the 35-percent tariff would run out by mid-October.
“May excess talaga na nabili at nabayaran ng buwis nang mahal [There’s really an excess of rice bought at higher tariff],” Laurel told reporters on the sidelines of a poultry and livestock event held in Pasay City last Wednesday.
“It will take until mid- or end of October before the old stocks [bought] at high price will run out,” he added, partly in Filipino.
Laurel also said that international market changes prompt world rice prices to remain high.
“India is still not yet allowing exports of their rice…Indonesia and Malaysia are again buying rice for their buffer stocks that’s why prices are not going down in the international market,” he explained.
Laurel also said there was no reason to raise tariffs since stocks bought at lower rate were still below the usual volume.
“The rice that came in is still at low level, 15 percent […] so, we don’t have enough stocks to raise that as of the moment,” he said.
Rice import arrivals as of August 22 reached 2.72 million metric tons (MMT), according to the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI).
Agriculture Assistant Secretary and Spokesman Arnel de Mesa earlier said that shipments after July 6 were already levied with the 15-percent tariff rate.
Rice imports from July 1 to August 22 stood at 376,353.70 metric tons (MT), based on BAI data. This was lower than the average shipments made from the first semester at 390,065.93 MT.
‘Slow decline in rice prices’
The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) recently said the pace of the decline in the prices of the staple is still “slow” despite the implementation of Executive Order (EO) 62 which reduced the tariff for rice to 15 percent.
Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Neda Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said the reduction in the retail price of rice has been gradual. (See: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2024/08/29/despite-eo-62-rice-price-dip-slow-neda/)
“But hopefully as the world rice market situation improves, and also stakeholders are able to adjust…we will see improvements [in the price of rice],” Balisacan told Palace reporters in a chance interview last Wednesday.
Based on the DA’s latest price monitoring, the prevailing price of local well-milled and regular milled rice in Metro Manila markets was P52 per kilo and P48 per kilo, respectively.
The prevailing price of imported well-milled and regular milled rice was P52 per kilo and P47 per kilo, respectively.
© Copyright 2025 The SSResource Media.
All rights reserved.