MANILA — Acording to the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) at least 18,463 metric tons of imported rice from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan arrived in the Philippines as of January 4.
BPI’s latest data showed that the bulk of imported rice came from Vietnam, 11,423 MT; followed by Thailand, 6,500 MT and Pakistan, 540 MT.
The total imported rice arrival in 2023 reached 3.567 million MT, which was seven percent lower than the total importation in 2022 of 3.826 million MT.
The BPI, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), issues sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPSIC) to importers.
In 2023, at least 5,460 SPSICs were issued with a total volume of 4.825 million MT.
As for the upward trend in the retail price of rice, the DA said it will continue due to the high cost of the grains in the international market.
At least 495,000 MT of imported rice from Taiwan and India will arrive starting this month until February in preparation for the possible impact of El Niño on palay production, Agriculture officer-in-charge for operations Undersecretary Roger Navarro said.
The daily rice consumption in the country is pegged at 36,000 MT per day or 1.08 million MT monthly.
Based on DA’s monitoring of Metro Manila markets, the retail price of local regular milled rice was as high as P53 per kilo; local well-milled rice, P55 per kilo; local premium rice, P62 per kilo; local special rice, P68 per kilo; imported well-milled rice, P58 per kilo; imported premium rice, P62 per kilo and imported special rice, P65 per kilo.
