By Ma. Teresa Montemayor.

SUFFICIENT SUPPLY. Green rice ear filled with grains. Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu-Laurel Jr. assured the public on Thursday (Feb. 8, 2024) that the country’s rice supply is sufficient through the first half of this year, with recent imports and the upcoming harvest that peaks in March and April. (PNA file photo by Joan Bondoc)

MANILA – The country’s rice supply is sufficient through the first half of the year, with recent imports and the upcoming harvest that peaks in March and April.

In a news release on Thursday, Agriculture Francisco Tiu-Laurel Jr. assured the public of a stable price of rice until June in spite of El Nino.

“We have enough rice supply so prices should remain stable through the first half of the year. Our priority now is market stability,” he said.

He noted that prices may stay elevated through September this year due to concerns over El Niño’s impact on global rice supply.

Heightened demand for rice grain also keeps international prices high.

Last week, the Philippines signed a five-year rice supply deal with Vietnam that ensures a source of 1.5 million to 2.0 million metric tons of rice a year.

Meanwhile, India has committed to provide additional supply despite the import ban on non-basmati rice.

In December 2023 and January 2024, a total 750,000 metric tons of imported rice arrived in the country.

“What we need to guard against now are profiteers who may attempt to exploit the situation by using El Niño as an excuse to hoard rice supply to push local prices to unreasonably high levels,” Tiu-Laurel said.

He instructed DA Assistant Secretary spokesperson Arnel de Mesa to coordinate with the Department of Trade and Industry and law enforcement agencies to closely monitor surges in the price of rice in the market.

The Philippine Statistics Authority has identified rice as a major risk in the consumer price index, which is used to measure inflation.

Earlier, Economic Planning Undersecretary and National Statistician Dennis Mapa said inflation could have been lower were it not for the double-digit increase in rice prices compared last year given its weight in the consumer basket.

“Since the price base for rice between January and July last year was lower, any increase in the price of the national staple could be magnified in the inflation print,” he said.

Headline inflation in January eased to 2.8 percent, its slowest pace since October 2020, he added.

Rice has a weight of 8.87 percent in the consumer basket used to determine headline inflation and an even higher at 17.87 percent share in the spending of the bottom 30 percent of income households. (PNA)

Published Date: February 8, 2024