THE country’s farmgate price of palay fell to P17.7 per kilo in 2025, the lowest level in three years, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Figures from the PSA showed that the average farmgate price of dry unmilled rice declined by nearly a quarter to 24.6 percent, from P23.48 per kilo in 2024.
Historical data from the state statistics agency indicated that this was the lowest recorded farmgate price since the P17.44 per kilo recorded in 2022.
Calabarzon posted the fastest decline last year, with the average farmgate price slumping by 33.6 percent, according to PSA.
Prices in the region averaged P14.14 per kilo in the reference year compared with the previous year’s P21.3 per kilo.
This was followed by Ilocos Region, which recorded a 30.7-percent year-on-year contraction, as traders bought palay at P17.95 per kilo last year, from the P25.89 per kilo recorded in 2024.
Top rice-producing regions Central Luzon and Cagayan Valley also recorded annual declines in farmgate prices in 2025.
The average price of unmilled rice in these regions stood at P17.13 per kilo from P24.07 per kilo and P16.48 per kilo from P23.66 per kilo, respectively.
In 2025, the government rolled out a raft of interventions in its bid to raise the prices of paddy rice, which fell to a low of P8 per kilo in some areas.
Among the interventions was the decision of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to extend the rice import ban until end-2025, as farmgate prices dropped from their previously gaining momentum when the import freeze neared its lifting in November.
He initially suspended shipments of rice for 60 days from September 1 until October 31 to arrest the sharp drop in palay prices ahead of the wet harvest season.
Industry sources cited the unabated entry of imports as the reason behind the decline in farmgate prices.
Furthermore, Marcos also issued Executive Orders (EO) 100 and EO 101, mandating the setting of a floor price for government procurement of unmilled rice and directing the full implementation of the Sagip Saka Act, respectively.
Total rice arrivals settled at 3.37 million metric tons (MMT) in 2025, a 30-percent drop year-on-year due to the ban slapped on foreign rice shipments.
The government is eyeing to raise the tariffs levied on rice to 20 percent from the current 15 percent on January 16.
The agriculture secretary, who also chairs the National Food Authority (NFA) Council, earlier said the grains agency plans to buy wet palay at P17 per kilo and dry palay at P21 per kilo during the dry harvest season.
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