The Department of Agriculture (DA) is expecting local rice prices to drop further after it announced it will lower the maximum suggested retail price (MSRP) of imported rice to P43 per kilogram starting July 1, 2025.
“We plan to reduce the MSRP of imported rice to P43 per kg starting July 1, from the current P45, in response to the recent decline in global rice prices,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said in a statement on Sunday, June 8.
The DA first implemented the rice MSRP last January to reflect the government’s move to reduce rice tariffs from 35 percent to 15 percent. The latter coincided with a drop in world rice prices following India’s lifting of its export ban on non-basmati rice and the waning in demand after 2024’s El Niño.
The initial MSRP for 5 percent broken imported rice was set at P58 per kg on January 28, 2025, and was gradually lowered to P45 by March 31 this year.
The DA said the move was proven effective, and was earlier cited by the government’s economic team as a factor in taming down inflation. The latter allowed the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to reduce interest rates, drive economic activity and create jobs.
With the scheduled lowering of the rice MSRP, the DA said corresponding adjustments in the prices of rice sold under the agency’s Rice-for-All (RFA) program would happen but it did not cite possible price ranges as of Sunday.
At present, the rice sold under the DA’s RFA program is at P43 per kg for 5 percent broken, P35 per kg for 25 percent broken, and P33 per kg for 100 percent broken.
The subsidized RFA prices are available besides the ongoing P20-per-kilogram rice program for vulnerable sectors such as the solo parents, persons with disability, senior citizens, beneficiaries of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program and minimum wage earners. The Marcos administration has committed to implement the P20/kg rice program until the end of its term in June 2028.
Earlier, the DA said the government sold a total of 2,361.07 metric tons (MT) of subsidized rice through various programs such as the RFA, the P29/kg, and the P20/kg rice programs, from July 5, 2024 to May 23, 2025. All of these benefitted 430,805 households and earned P77.36 million in sales.
Based on the DA’s monitoring of public markets in the National Capital Region, local well-milled rice sold for P38 to P52 per kg on Thursday, June 5, while regular milled rice went for P30 to P45 per kg.
Imported well-milled rice was selling for P38 to P50 per kg while the price of imported regular-milled rice ranged from P35 to P45 per kg.
Special-variety imported rice fetched P55 to P61 per kg and premium rice, P43 to P50 per kg.
Special-variety local rice was selling for P50 to P65 per kg while premium rice went for P44 to P60 per kg.
These varieties are priced based on regular market forces and factors, and are not subsidized.
