The Philippines rice sector via the Department of Agriculture (DA) is finalizing an amicable import price for 2025, to contain domestic prices.

Import prices for one of the world’s biggest rice importers normally impact domestic rates as much as those of locally-produced rice.

This is why the DA, together with the Department of Trade and Industry, is calculating a maximum suggested retail price (MSRP).

As of January 8, 2024, a kg of retail premium rice cost 60 pesos ($1.03) per kg, according to the government’s news site. 

But only premium palay at between 48 and 63 pesos ($0.82-1.08) a kg seems pricey, for regular rice is still cheap.

The only disparity is a 2-peso ($0.034) difference between the more expensive imported and the cheaper local rice.  Manila metropolitan shops have been selling regular local palay at between 38 and 48 pesos ($0.65-0.82)) per kg. This is even as imported one has been costing between 40 and 48 pesos ($0.67-0.82).

Rice Still Affordable 

Arguably, rice is among the least expensive foods in the Philippines at the moment since its inflation is down.

A December 2024 tally shows that rice inflation fell to 0.8%, a staggering drop from the November high of 5.1%.

This way, rice helped bring food inflation to just 4.4% in 2024, down from 7.9% in 2023.  Overall, however, monthly inflation rose by 2.9% in December.

Balanced Approach

The focus for now is rice pricing, for it is the most sensitive food for poor families or 30% of Philippine households.

Hence, the DA is working cautiously towards the mrsp reduction so as to still benefit importers while appeasing consumers.

This balanced approach highlights the signature strategy that has always informed the Philippines’ rice sector when making trade decisions. The statistics below illustrate this point further by showing how policies balance import and consumer prices alike. 

Philippines’ Rice Import/Local Price Statistics 

Between January 2000 and January 2018, the import and retail prices of rice in the Philippines have gone hand-in-hand.  Whenever import prices rose or fell during the timeline, so did retail prices behave similarly.

2000-2018:  in January 2000, while  imports cost slightly above 11 pesos ($0.19) per kg, retail rates were at over 25 pesos ($0.43) per kg. This according to the National Economic and Development Authority and the Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (CGIAR). In January 2008 when all prices spiked, Thai import rice in to the Philippines hiked to over 40 pesos ($0.67) a kilo. So did retail rates nearly approach 45 pesos ($0.77). Through January 2018, the Thai imported rice cost just under 20 pesos a kg even as retail prices touched 45 pesos.

2019-2024 well-milled rice retail price: while all rice retail price averaged 45 pesos ($0.77) in 2018, well-milled rice cost as high as 54.23 pesos a kg amid rising import prices. Since then, the retail price of well-milled has been depreciating. It was 42.73 pesos in 2019, 41.68 ($0.71) in 2020,  42.44 ($0.73) in 2021, 43.77 ($0.75) in 2022 and 47.41($0.81) in 2023. This according to the government’s statistics.