Rice prices still on the downtrend

MANILA, Philippines — Local consumers continue to enjoy lower prices but farmers remain at the losing end after the Philippines opened the market to imported rice.

Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that prices of Filipinos’ main staple remained on a downward trend due to the entry of more imported rice.

In its regular update on palay, rice and corn prices, PSA said the average wholesale price of well-milled rice was P39.35 per kilogram as of last week, down five percent year on year.

Average retail price also decreased by three percent to P42.98 per kilo.

Meanwhile, the wholesale price of regular-milled rice was P35.46 per kilo, down seven percent while its average retail price was  P38.68 per  kilo.

While consumers are reaping the benefits of rice liberalization, local farmers are suffering from declining palay (unhusked rice) farm gate prices.

The average farm gate price of palay continued to decrease to P17.91 per kilo.  This is 16 percent lower than the previous year’s P21.36 per kilo.

The lower farm gate price was attributed to increased local harvest and imports flooding the commercial market.

Total rice inventory stood at 2.94 million metric tons (MT) as of May, 1.3 percent higher than last year’s volume of 2.91 million MT.

This is also 12.2 percent up from the 2.63 million MT the previous month.

Under the Rice Tariffication Law, quantitative restrictions on rice importation are lifted and private traders are allowed to import the commodity from countries of their choice.

The Rice Tariffication Law replaced the government’s quantitative restrictions on importation of the staple with a 35 percent tariff.

Under the measure, the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), a special rice buffer fund with an initial P10 billion annual fund, was created  to ensure the competitiveness of rice production.