LOWER RICE PRICES. Rice prices are displayed at a rice retail store in San Andres, Manila on May 6, 2024. The Department of Agriculture on Friday (July 19, 2024) said the public may feel lower retail prices of imported rice by August following the implementation of lowered tariffs. (PNA file photo by Yancy Lim)
MANILA – The public may start to feel lower rice retail prices next month as imported rice with lower tariffs started coming in, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Friday.
Executive Order (EO) 62, which lowered the tariffs on imported rice from 35 percent to 15 percent, was implemented last July 5.
”August iyan mararamdaman talaga iyong pumasok na siya sa palengke… Nasa PHP40s level of course, ang prevailing kasi ay (That will be felt around August when it reaches the local markets. It’s around PHP40s level of course because the prevailing price is) PHP50, PHP51,” DA Assistant Secretary Arnel De Mesa said in an interview.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) earlier said EO 62 may help reduce rice retail prices by PHP6 to PHP7 per kilo.
As of Tuesday, the price of imported regular milled rice in Metro Manila ranges from PHP47/kg to PHP49/kg, and PHP51/kg to PHP55/kg for imported well-milled rice.
De Mesa, meanwhile, explained that importers may have waited for the lowered tariff before they applied for sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPSIC), with around 302 applications approved for the entire month of July.
Around 35,594 metric tons (MT) of imported rice has arrived as of July 11, which is lower than the 156,000 MT imported in the same period last year.
”Iyong (During) January, February, March, April, May of this year, ang average niyan (its average) is 400,000 metric tons, bumaba lang siya ng June kasi may mga ganitong usapin (it only declined in June because of these matters),” he said.
To date, the DA recorded a total of 2.37 million MT of imported rice in the country. (PNA)
