The Department of Agriculture assured the public on Thursday that there would be enough supply of the country's main food staple in the first half of this year.

According to Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., this is due to recent imports and the nearing harvest, which is expected to peak in March and April.

"We have enough rice supply so prices should remain stable through the first half of the year. Our priority now is market stability,” he said, also ensuring the stable price of rice through June despite the ongoing El Nino forecast to persist until the second quarter of 2024.

However, Laurel noted that rice prices may remain high through September due to the potential effects of El Nino on global rice supply and a possible increase in demand for the crop, thus ordering DA spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa to coordinate with the Department of Trade and Industry and law enforcement agencies to keep an eye on rice price surges in the market.

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

The Philippine Statistics Authority reported on Tuesday that rice inflation climbed to 22.6% last January from 19.6% in December 2023—the highest rice price inflation at the national level in 14 years.

This is despite the slow headline inflation seen last month, which registered at 2.8%—the lowest inflation rate since October 2020, when it was recorded at 2.3%.

PSA chief and National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa linked the faster price of rice inflation to the low base where the rice price came from January to July 2023, also noting that rice prices in the world market are high.

In the overall inflation rate, rice contributed 1.3 percentage points.

Phl palay output highest in 2023

The Philippines had the largest palay harvest in history in 2023, with a volume of 20.06 million metric tons.

PSA reported last month that palay output last year was 1.5 percent higher than the 2022 volume of 19.76 million MT—a slash from the 2021 harvest of 19.96 million MT.

With the highest palay yield, the government was able to lower its rice import volume last year to 3.5 million MT from 3.8 million MT in 2022.

Phl-Vietnam five-year rice pact

Vietnam will supply the Philippines with rice for five years, as the two Southeast Asian countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding on a rice pact during President Ferdinand ''Bongbong'' Marcos Jr.'s state visit to Hanoi last January.

Under the MOU, Vietnam will supply the country with 1.5 million to 2 million metric tons of white rice per year at an affordable price.

According to DA, India also vowed additional rice supply to the country despite the import ban on non-basmati rice.