Manila, Philippines — The country is still struggling with skyrocketing food prices after inflation for food jumped to 4.0% in January 2025 compared with 3.5% in the prior month. Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the increase is being attributed to the increase in the cost of vital commodities, such as tomatoes, meat, and fish. Inflation for meat on a year-on-year basis was 6.4% in January, while fish and other seafood was up 3%.
Even though rice prices have recently moderated from their peak in December 2024 (₱50–₱55 per kilogram) to a national average of ₱47/kg in the last days of February 2025, many provinces and cities are still experiencing elevated prices. This trend reflects the persistence of food insecurity nationwide.
Rice Tariffication Law Blamed by Farmers, Experts
IRDF Executive Director Arze Glipo, at a press conference at Kamuning Bakery Café on March 5, 2025, organized by the Integrated Rural Development Foundation (IRDF), presented PSA data that indicated rice prices in provinces like Kalinga, Mountain Province, Zambales, Batangas, Capiz, and in cities such as Bacolod, Davao and Cagayan de Oro, to be above the national average.
The uncontrolled rising prices are the impact of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) that resulted to unregulated importation of rice leading to high production costs as a result of monopolies that rule the trading rackets, Glipo said. The Philippines has also grown into the largest rice importer in the world, importing around 4 million metric tons each year, she said.
Eduardo Landayan, AMMA-KATIPUNAN president, slammed the RTL for aggravating the price manipulation by traders while suppressing the palay farmgate prices. In major rice-growing provinces such as Nueva Ecija and Isabela, palay prices have plummeted to ₱15–₱18/kg as traders defer local purchases on the grounds that local warehouses are full of imported rice, he said.
Landayan also denounced the Department of Agriculture’s recent announcement of a food security emergency — which enables the National Food Authority (NFA) to release 300,000 metric tons of rice in its buffer stock during harvest season. This action further hurts local farmers, he warned.
“The RTL passage in 2019 has only heightened the claws of traders in the rice economy, pocketing their profits while millions of small farmers lost,” he said. Farly said another share of land-use conversion in Central Luzon has been observed, as Chinese investors were allegedly buying rice farmlands in Pampanga for solar power projects.
A Need for More Government Intervention
The forum also urged decisive government action to tackle the crisis, experts said. “The RTL has aggravated food security as it undermined government support for both rice farmers and consumers,” said Dr. Rene Ofreneo, 1st Nominee of ARISE Partylist. Ofreneo acknowledged that some local government units, including Isabela’s provincial government, have rolled out price support mechanisms for palay but added that the programs do not shine a light on the plight of the country’s 3 million rice farmers.
He called on the Department of Agriculture to adopt a broaderness of a recommendation to solve the problem that includes investment on post-harvest facilities, logistics, marketing, and other value chain development. “We need strong state intervention in rice trade like Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and China do,” he remarked.
Dr. Teodoro Mendoza, an agronomist and former professor at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, said that relying on imported rice renders the country vulnerable to price fluctuation as climate change worsens. He also proposed the repeal of the RTL and the reversion of the NFA’s mandate, estimating that the agency would need a further ₱100 billion in funding so that it could buy at least 25% of domestic output of rice.
For long-term food security, Mendoza said farmers’ incomes should improve, more land be irrigated and the food we consume be more diverse in terms of protein sources that include an emphasis on plants.
Desperate Need for Government Intervention
The panelists all agreed that immediate, aggressive government intervention is needed. They demanded for the disbanding of the rice cartel that has thrived from trade liberalization and dared the national government to provide a complete range of support measures, including price and input subsidies, cash grants for farmers, and climate adaptation assistance.
The IRDF also urged legislators to pass new rice sector development legislation and redirect the national budget to prioritize agriculture and assistance to farmers. Without bold moves, according to the experts, food insecurity is here to stay: Millions of Filipinos will continue to be at the mercy of high prices and supply volatility.
