PH rice imports to soar to 4.2-m MT in 2025

PHILIPPINES rice imports are forecast to hit a record level of 4.2 million metric tons (MT) in 2025 on continued growth in consumption.

The Philippines is expected to again be the largest global rice importer, according to a recent grains report released by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) on May 10, 2024.

Rice importation forecast for 2025 is estimated to be 2.4 higher than 2024’s estimated importation of 4.1 million MT.

Based on recent grains statistics released by the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA) on May 8, 2024, the January to March 2024 seasonally adjusted palay production was recorded at 5.23 million metric tons (MT).

This is an indication of 5 percent increase from the previous quarter’s seasonally adjusted estimate of production at 4.98 million MT.

Year-on-year, raw data from PSA showed a 2 percent decline in output to 4.69 million MT in the first quarter of 2024 from 4.78 million MT in the same quarter in 2023.

On the other hand, the seasonally adjusted farmgate price of palay in the first quarter of 2024 has been observed at P24.06 per kilogram (kg), representing an increase of 6.7 percent from P22.56 per kilogram recorded in the previous quarter.

Additionally, the country’s total rice stocks inventory was estimated at 1.64 million MT as of April 1, 2024, down by 10.9 percent from 1.84 million MT inventory in the same period of the previous year.

Month-on-month, the volume of rice stocks inventory recorded an increment of 20.2 percent from the previous month’s inventory of 1.37 million metric tons.

The April data showed rice stocks inventories registered annual decreases from the NFA depositories by 58 percent, from the commercial sector by 9.1 percent, and from the households by 7.6 percent.

In comparison to the March 2024 rice stocks levels, month-on-month increments were noted from the households by 35 percent, from the commercial sector by 5.1 percent, and from the NFA depositories by 0.7 percent.

Of this month’s total rice stocks, 57.1 percent were from the households, 40.3 percent were from the commercial sector, and 2.5 percent were from the NFA depositories.