By TED CORDERO,GMA Integrated News

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is expecting the retail prices of rice to remain stable within the first quarter of 2026 as the tariff rate applied on imported rice remains at 15% following the Philippines’ return to the international rice market on January 1.

At a press briefing in Quezon City on Wednesday, DA spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said the tariff rate for the imported grain stayed at 15% as the threshold to trigger an increase was not met.

Under the implementing guidelines of Executive Order No. 105, series of 2025 —which extended the import ban until the end of December last year and prescribed conditions in adjusting the tariff rate— the tariff rate on rice shall be adjusted if the trigger prices for benchmark Vietnam rice (5% broken) are reached.

De Mesa said that to trigger an increase in tariff rate to 20% the price of benchmark Vietnam rice should range from $350 to $367 per metric ton.

However, as of late January, the price of Vietnam rice in the international market was at $382 per metric ton, thus the supposed adjustment in tariff rate from January 16, 2026 was not implemented.

Nonetheless, he said that the price of Vietnamese rice remains low, thus the maximum suggested retail price (MSRP) of P43 per kilo is still in effect.

The DA official explained that “because [imported] rice was purchased at a lower price, the retail prices in public markets should not be high.”

De Mesa said the DA, along with other government agencies and local government units, will continue its strict monitoring of rice prices in the market.

Tariff rate might be adjusted come mid-April should the DA certify that the threshold to hike the import duty on rice was triggered, which will be followed by a Customs Memorandum Order adjusting the tariff rate.

Nevertheless, the Agriculture official assured that local farmgate prices of palay will not slide even with a 15% tariff as the DA secured commitments from millers and traders that “they will buy at farmgate price of P17 per kilo for wet and P21 per kilo for dry.

“So this balances the issues arising from tariffs,” de Mesa said.

The DA is expecting an initial import volume of about 300,000 MT for February, subject to further continuing review based on market developments. 

Importers may begin applying for sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances, with shipments expected to arrive by early February. 

In 2025, rice imports were lower at 3.36 million MT amid the four-month importation ban on the grain.

In 2024, rice imports reached about 4.8 million metric tons.

This volume “dragged palay prices down to as low as P8 per kilo in some areas before the ban,” which prompted the government to implement a four-month import ban last year. 

—LDF GMA Integrated News

Published Date: January 28, 2026