IMPORTED rice and fertilizer will be costlier for Filipinos amid the continued weakening of the peso, which hit a new record low of P64 per dollar, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA).
Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said the peso’s depreciation would ripple across costs of imported goods, pushing up prices of commodities like fertilizers and rice.
‘There are possible movements in prices of imported rice because of the significant [peso depreciation] and this would reflect [locally],’ de Mesa told reporters on Thursday.
This could also jack up fertilizer costs, as all of them come from foreign suppliers, with the country remaining dependent on imported inputs.
De Mesa also pointed to the volatility of freight costs due to prices of petroleum products: ‘So, this will affect retail prices.’
At present, imported rice prices retail between P50 and P55 per kilo for 25-percent broken grains.
Despite this, de Mesa allayed concerns that retail prices would breach the P60 per kilo mark, pointing to cheaper global quotations for rice due to ample supply as an offsetting factor.
‘It’s currently the harvest season in Vietnam, Southeast Asia, and India from where we source our rice. This means lower prices in the international market, which compensates the increase in [peso against the dollar].’
De Mesa said a price increase in the retail market could be felt by consumers in mid-November, citing a two-week turnaround time from shipments in Vietnam, the leading rice supplier of the Philippines.
Latest data from the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) showed that rice arrivals stood at 4.37 million metric tons (MMT) as of October 22.
De Mesa had said that rice imports could surge to more than 5 MMT this year as El Niño strains domestic production.
‘We have to ensure [sufficient rice stocks] if the El Niño becomes more severe or the duration lasts longer, since it would cover the entire dry season planting, which will be harvested from March to April.’
He noted ample inventories of agricultural products for consumers, including rice, meat, fish, and vegetables.
With farmers sustaining the brunt of the dry spell’s impact, De Mesa said the government has already rolled out interventions to provide alternative livelihoods to those who would be affected.
Among these measures are including affected farmers in the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) TUPAD program and the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Cash-for-Work program.