Philippines Rice insights

The Philippines government is imposing a temporary ban on rice imports. It will go into effect on September 1 and will be in place for 60 days. The decision was made to protect local producers during the harvest season. When asked about a possible change in rice import tariffs, the Philippine presidential communications secretary said

Core tip: According to a report by the Philippine Star on July 23, the Philippine Department of Agriculture stated that the combined effects of Tropical Storm "Karding" (international name "Vera") and the southwest monsoon have caused damage to crops, livestock, and farms worth 134.7 million pesos, displacing 6,377 farmers and fisherfolk, affecting 8,305 hectares of farmland, and an estimated production loss of 3,412 tons. Among these, rice was the most severely affected, accounting for 90.51%.

Core Tip: In 2025, China's central No. 1 document first proposed to "improve the coordination mechanism between agricultural product trade and production," which is a new challenge we face. From an international perspective, many countries have accumulated rich experience in establishing and improving agricultural product trade and production coordination mechanisms, with numerous representative policies available for our reference. In the Philippines, the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund is precisely the key measure to achieve trade and production synergy. The per capita cultivated land area in the Philippines is similar to China's. Although the climate conditions are suitable, frequent natural disasters like typhoons, coupled with low agricultural mechanization, poor seed quality, and backward planting techniques, have resulted in low rice yields, leading to large-scale rice imports over an extended period. In recent years, the Philippines has established the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, using tariff revenues to support domestic rice production.