MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) has asserted that despite rising rice prices, the supplies remain sufficient.
Rice prices in Metro Manila have recently spiked up to an additional P2 per kilogram, which the DA has attributed to high production costs.
READ: Rice prices surge as production costs rise
“We expect [the price movement] to stabilize,” said Undersecretary Leo S. Sebastian in a statement.
Despite this, Sebastian said there was enough rice for the public.
“This is based on PhilRice PRISM data of 8.153 million metric tons palay production in 2022 to 8.605 MMT palay or 5.6 MMT milled rice in 2023,”
Sebastian added that there is also carry-over stock of 1.8 million metric tons of milled rice, which is further augmented by an import arrival of 1.8 million metric tons of rice.
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