Philippines wants to extend rice import ban

Philippine press quoted the country's agriculture chief as saying he wanted to extend the ban on rice imports for another 15-30 days.

The Philippines' 60-day rice import ban is entering its fourth week. Regarding the rice import ban, the country's press quoted Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., Secretary of Agriculture (DA), as saying: The rice import ban has helped domestic rice prices recover. To continue supporting the price of rice farmers are harvesting, he is considering a proposal to extend the rice import ban for at least 15 days and even 30 days. "Before the rice import ban, the price of rice was around 8-10 pesos/kg. Currently, in some areas, it is 17 pesos/kg. The extension of the ban will be calculated based on specific figures," said Tiu Laurel.

Philippines unexpectedly wants to extend rice import ban

PHOTO: CHI NHAN

The above information is said to be surprising to many people because the DA's own statistics last week showed that rice output in 2025 is not as high as previous forecasts due to widespread flooding in key agricultural areas.

Earlier this year, the DA forecasted a production of 20.46 million tonnes of paddy. However, last week, presenting to the House of Representatives’ budget allocation meeting, the DA said: The forecast for 2025 is down to 20.09 - 20.39 million tonnes (equivalent to 12.65 - 12.85 million tonnes of rice). However, this is still a significantly higher figure than 2024’s 19.09 million tonnes.

The Philippines is the world’s largest rice importer in 2024 with a record high output of 4.7 million tons. This year, the DA and the US Department of Agriculture both forecast that the country will continue to be the world’s number one rice importer with an output of 4.5-5.1 million tons due to increased demand from tourism activities.

As of September 11, the country had only imported 3.1 million tons of rice; therefore, the estimated import output in the last months of the year is about 1.5 million tons.

In Vietnam, last week, rice prices increased sharply again due to limited supply and increased demand from African countries and Malaysia.

Why do Vietnamese rice prices continue to increase sharply?

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/philippines-muon-keo-dai-lenh-cam-nhap-khau-gao-185250923144817034.htm