Rice prices up 30.25% in January

THE average price of well-milled rice increased annually by 30.25 percent in January, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Monday.

Latest data from the PSA showed that the selling price of well-milled rice averaged P49.86 per kilo in the first month of 2024, which is higher than the P38.28 per kilo posted in the same month last year.

On a monthly basis, the latest average price was 1.52 percent higher from the price level of P49.11 per kilo last December.

Among the regions, in Central Visayas, the price of well-milled rice was the highest reported at P57.66 per kilo during the period, while the Ilocos Region was the lowest at P44.98 per kilo.

The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) reported the highest increase in the average price of well-milled rice by 7.6 percent to P53.60 per kilo.

A monthly increment of 1.68 percent was also observed in the prices of regular milled rice, which averaged P46.60 per kilo during the same period. This was in comparison to the P45.83 per kilo posted last month.

The average price of premium rice also increased to P54.14 per kilo, higher by 1.7 percent than P53.23 per kilo logged in the previous month.

Likewise, the average price of special rice went up by 1.79 percent to P55.11 per kilo from P54.14 per kilo a month earlier.

Last week, Department of Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said that prices of rice will remain elevated until September this year due to the higher prices on the international market and the increasing demand caused by the El Niño weather pattern.

However, he added that the rice supply will remain sufficient until the first half of the year.

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