Despite the persistent El Niño in the early part of the year, the Department of Agriculture (DA) has assured stable rice prices through June.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. said on Thursday, Feb. 8, that the nation's rice supply for the first half of the year is secure, supported by imports and the upcoming harvest season in March and April.

"We have enough rice supply so prices should remain stable through the first half of the year. Our priority now is market stability,” he said.

Imported rice delivered to the country from December to January amounted to 750,000 metric tons, boosting the local inventory.

Last week, the Philippines inked a deal with Vietnam to receive 1.5 million to 2 million metric tons of rice annually, while India promised to back the supply despite a recent import ban on non-basmati rice.

Despite the support from foreign countries, Tiu Laurel noted that high rice prices may stay elevated through September because of the El Niño impact on the global rice supply and the increasing grain demand; these factors affect international prices.

"What we need to guard against now are profiteers who may attempt to exploit the situation by using El Nino as an excuse to hoard rice supply to push local prices to unreasonably high levels,” the DA chief said.

To mitigate possible exploitation, assistant secretary and spokesman Arnel de Mesa was told to coordinate with the Department of Trade and Industry as well as other law enforcement agencies to monitor and review the surging prices of rice in the market.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said that rice is now a major risk in the consumer price index, a measure used by the agency to identify inflation.

Dennis Mapa, the undersecretary for economic planning and national statistician suggested that the increased rate could have been avoided, stating that “inflation could have been lower were it not for the double-digit increase in rice prices compared last year given its weight in the consumer basket.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), rice weighed 8.87 percent in the consumer basket and this determined the headline inflation to an increased 17.87 percent share in the spending of around 30 percent of income-generating households.

“Since price base for rice between January and July last year was lower, any increase in the price of the national staple could be magnified in the inflation print,” he added.

Overall, the PSA logged an ease in headline inflation, which is at 2.8 percent. This is slower compared to the inflation pace in October 2020 during the pandemic season.