Rice imports rose 15% in January to May

MANILA, Philippines – The volume of rice imported to the Philippines swelled by around 15 percent as of late May as the sector builds up the buffer stock in anticipation of the severe impact of El Niño on local production.

The country imported 2.22 million metric tons (MT) of rice from January to May 28. This was higher than 1.93 million MT between January and May 2025, data from the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) showed.

Rice imports in May alone reached 503,131.00 MT, slightly lower than the previous year. This was the highest monthly import volume for 2026.

READ: The Philippines remains world’s largest rice importer

In a press briefing on Wednesday, Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said the industry is ensuring sufficient supply due to the El Niño phenomenon and other weather conditions.

The DA had projected that a potentially severe dry spell could slash rice production by approximately 700,000 MT.

Typhoons, too

“If we consider the typhoons, that’s an additional 500,000 to 600,000 metric tons of losses,” said De Mesa, who is also the DA

spokesperson.

De Mesa said the increase in imports is justifiable, given that the country needs to prepare for any problems arising from the significant impact of El Niño on palay production.

“If we look at it, it’s quite high but considering our inflation and imported goods are cheaper, I guess that is enough reason to justify why imports are high,” he said.

“We can see that we have enough volume of rice supply in our country, coming from both local (sources), because the harvest just finished, and our imports hit 2.2 million metric tons. We have no shortage of rice supply in the country,” he added.

Local production dropped by 6.3 percent to 4.4 million MT in the first quarter of 2026—the lowest first-quarter output since 2020—according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

The DA had lowered its palay output projection for 2026 to 19.87 million MT from 20.28 million MT due to the Middle East crisis and looming dry spells.

The agency recently reconvened its El Niño task force to establish measures for an effective and efficient response to the foreseen adverse impact of a prolonged dry spell.

This, as the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration projected a 92-percent probability of a moderate to strong El Niño in the fourth quarter of 2026, which may potentially extend into early 2027. INQ