MANILA -- The Department of Agriculture (DA) assured on Tuesday that there is enough supply of rice to provide for the daily food requirement of Filipinos as the country enters the 3rd quarter of the year.

According to Undersecretary Leo S. Sebastian, who heads the DA’s Masagana Rice Industry Program (MRIP), a bountiful harvest for the January - June rice planting season is expected give a six percent production increase.

“This is based on PhilRice PRISM data of 8.153 MMT (million metric tons) palay production in 2022 to 8.605 MMT palay or 5.6 MMT milled rice in 2023,” he said.

Sebastian added that the volume, plus the carry over stock of 1.8M MT (metric tons) milled rice (based on PSA) and augmented by import arrival of 1.8MMT is enough to fill in the demand/consumption of 7MMT from January to June).  

“By the end of June,  the stock available will be good for more than 2 months, in additional to the incoming supply from the new harvest and import arrivals in the coming months,” he said.  

Sebastian stressed that the price movement currently taking place is due to the high cost of production locally and globally that also push the price of palay and imported rice, respectively.

“We expect this to stabilize” Sebastian said. (PND)