Vendors put up a price sign at a box of well-milled rice at the Mega Q-Mart in Quezon City on September 3, 2023, in compliance with the implementation of a price ceiling on regular and well-milled rice in the country. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News

The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Saturday ruled out imposing another price cap on regular and well-milled rice as a way to address high inflation.

DA spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arnel De Mesa said in a news forum that the agency is focused on increasing the country’s rice production instead of again implementing price control measures— a move that was heavily criticized by various groups last year.

“Ang tutok pa rin namin ngayon ay sa palayan, na mapataas ang lebel ng produksyon at mapababa yung cost to produce, again, sa pamamagitan ng mechanization. At mapababa rin yung post-harvest losses,” said De Mesa.

(Our focus is on the rice fields, how to increase the level of production and bring down the cost to produce, again, through mechanization, as well as reducing our post-harvest losses.)

 Agri chief sees no rice price cut until June or July

 Inflation in the Philippines rose to 3.7 percent in March with rice prices being the biggest contributor to the upward trend.

According to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), rice inflation jumped to a 15-year high of 24.4 percent last month.

But De Mesa said that while year-on-year rice prices showed an uptick, the month-on-month figures have gone down based on their monitoring on the ground.

 “Yung (2023) na presyo ng bigas na regular nasa P39-P40 last year, ngayon nasa P47, P48, P49. Pero kung titingnan niyo yung presyo ng bigas last month, P52, ngayon nasa P49 to P50. So yung presyo ng bigas bumababa versus last month,” he explained.

(In 2023, the price of regular rice was at P39 to P40 per kilo. Now it’s at P47, P48, P49. If you look at the price of rice last month, it was at P52, now it’s at P49 to P50. So the price of rice went down compared to last month.)

Rice prices to go down by second half of the year, Agri chief says 

But when asked if current rice prices would continue to go down, De Mesa said high farm gate price of palay and global rice prices are preventing such a scenario.

“Yung prices ay hindi masyadong gagalaw pa sa ngayon dahil present pa rin nga yung external shocks. Sa palay, mataas pa rin yung farmgate. Kahit panahon ng anihan, hindi niya mag-drive masyado na mapababa yung presyo ng bigas,” he said.

(Rice prices will not be moving much yet because there are still external shocks. For palay, the farm gate price is high. Even if it is harvest season, that is not enough to significantly drive down rice prices.)

Meanwhile, agricultural damage due to El Niño stood at P2.63 billion.

P60 per kg rice looms, price watchdog warns 

According to De Mesa, while this number may still go up, they don’t expect a significant increase in damage anymore.

“Yung epekto ng El Niño ay nagsabay doon sa harvest season so hindi na natin ine-expect na masyadong dumami pa dahil marami na rin sa mga lugar yung na-harvest na. Halimbawa, Mindoro, 80 percent na yung na-harvest (na crops),” he said.

(The impact of El Niño coincided with the harvest season so we are not expecting the damage to agriculture to go up further because a lot of places have already harvested their crops. For example, Mindoro, 80 percent of their crops have already been harvested.)