Rice prices continue downward trend

Prices of rice in the market continued to decline in the first week of October, government data showed.

Based on the latest price monitoring report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), both wholesale and retail prices of rice have gone down for the fourth consecutive week and the trend is expected to continue until the last week of the month.

On average, a kilo of regular-milled and well-milled rice were sold at P42.64 and P45.45, respectively—down 1.2 percent and 1.24 percent from a week ago. However, these were still higher by 19.84 percent and 15.84 percent compared with prices a year ago.

Retail prices of these rice variants in the market also went down, although at a slower pace. Regular-milled and well-milled rice were sold at P45.87 and P49 a kilo, respectively—down 0.50 percent and 0.73 percent from a year ago.

President of PHL Confederation of Grains Association Inc. Jojie Co said in a phone interview that they expected prices to go down even further as the week progressed, in part due to the beginning of the harvest season.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said he was banking on the government’s latest imposition of suggested retail prices (SRPs) on rice variants to keep prices in check.

Rice prices in the market were seen as one of the major drivers of the country’s inflation rate this year, which reached a nine-year high of 6.7 percent in September.

Economic managers have been urging lawmakers to prioritize the passage of the Rice Tariffication Bill, which will finally liberalize rice imports in the country. This is expected to lower rice prices in the market by as much as P6 a kilo.