CONTRIBUTED PHOTOHarvest season has begun in Central Luzon but the farmgate price of palay (unhusked rice) in the region remained low. Crispulo Bautista, regional director of the Department of Agriculture in Region 3, confirmed the price of palay in Central Luzon, the rice granary of the country, is P13.50 per kilo for newly harvested crops. The Rice Tariffication Law removed quantitative restrictions on rice imports and replaced them with a 35 percent import tariff. According to data from the Bureau of Customs, rice shipments during the first nine months of 2021 has reached 2.1 million metric tons and has surpassed the import volume for 2020, which totaled 2.06 million metric tons. A total of 3.13 million metric tons of rice imports entered the country in 2019.

Source: Manila Times September 28, 2021 16:52 UTC