Philippines has enough rice going into Q3 2023, says DA

There is a enough supply of rice to meet the daily food needs of Filipinos as the country enters the third quarter of the year, an official of the Department of Agriculture said on Tuesday.

According to Undersecretary Leo S. Sebastian, the overseer of the DA's Masagana Rice Industry Program (MRIP), the fruitful harvest during the January to June rice planting season is expected to yield a six percent increase in production.

Citing data from PhilRice PRISM, Sebastian indicated that palay production is projected to reach 8.605 million metric tons (MMT) in 2023, equivalent to 5.6 million metric tons of milled rice.

Sebastian said this volume—in addition to the carry-over stock of 1.8 million metric tons of milled rice and augmented by the arrival of 1.8 million metric tons through imports—would be sufficient to meet the demand and consumption of seven million metric tons from January to June.

“By the end of June,  the stock available will be good for more than two months, in additional to the incoming supply from the new harvest and import arrivals in the coming months,” Sebastian said.

Sebastian said the current price fluctuations are primarily attributed to the high local and global production costs, affecting the prices of both domestically grown palay and imported rice, respectively.

“We expect this to stabilize” Sebastian said. —NB, GMA Integrated News