DA sets MSRP of imported rice at P45 starting March 31
NEW RICE POLICY Rice vendor Eddie Pascual waits for customers at Marikina Public Market on Monday as the Department of Agriculture says it will announce “very soon” the maximum suggested retail price for imported rice to help lower prices. —Grig C. Montegrande
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) further reduced the maximum suggested retail price (MSRP) per kilogram (kg) for imported rice from P49 to P45, effective on March 31.
In a statement on Wednesday, the DA said it slashed the price ceiling for the imported staple in response to the softening of global rice prices.
“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.
This is the fourth reduction since the DA first introduced the MSRP for imported rice two months ago to arrest rising retail prices despite reducing the tariff rate from 35 percent to 15 percent effective July 2024.
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“The implementation of the MSRP followed consultations with industry stakeholders to ensure that price reductions would not destabilize the rice industry or compromise food security,” the DA said.
The DA initially set the price ceiling for imported premium rice at P58 a kilo on Jan. 20. It was dropped to P55 per kg on Feb. 5 before it was further reduced to P52 per kg on Feb. 15. As of March 10, it was pegged at P49 per kg.
As of March 25, the price of imported regular and well-milled rice per kg was between P35 and P46, as opposed to P38 to P50 on Jan. 20, the first day of MSRP implementation, based on the DA’s price monitoring of Metro Manila markets.
According to the DA, rice prices worldwide have dropped to their lowest levels in over two years, with some varieties now priced below $380 per metric ton (MT).
Before this, it noted that the price of good-quality rice from Vietnam (5-percent broken grains) slid down to $490 per MT in March. Vietnam is the country’s leading imported rice supplier.
Furthermore, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations earlier reported that the FAO All Rice Price Index averaged 105.9 points in February, down by 6.8 percent from 113.6 points in January.
This benchmark is based on 21 rice export quotations across the four grain varieties—indica, aromatic, japonica, and glutinous.
“The falls were driven by a combination of generally weak import demand, progress of the winter-spring harvest in Vietnam, and favorable prospects for offseason crops in India and Thailand,” the FAO report said.
