President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced Tuesday that he will soon issue an executive order imposing a P50-per-kilo price cap on imported rice, following a recommendation from the National Price Coordinating Council.
The council backed a proposal from the Department of Agriculture to establish a ceiling that reflects the fair cost of imported rice, even as recent geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have driven up freight charges and insurance premiums.
The DA recommend the price cap to temper unreasonable increase in the price of the country’s national food staple. Before the conflict, the Department of Agriculture had set a maximum suggested retail price of P43 per kilo.
Despite these rising logistics costs, global rice prices have remained relatively subdued due to bumper harvests among major exporting countries.
