Philippines to open January rice import window, extend ban through end-2025

By Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio

The Philippines will implement a one-month rice import window in January next year and reimpose a halt from February to April, as the government extends its rice import ban until end-2025, its Agriculture chief said on Monday, in a plan “more or less” approved by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. said the government plans to allow about 300,000 metric tons of rice imports in January 2026, an amount he said would be sufficient to support local stocks for consumption.

“I believe we have to import by January just to be sure,” he told lawmakers at a House of Representatives hearing in Filipino. “Our imported stocks, which we stopped in September, are estimated to run out by the end of November and we’ll be running on local stocks in December.”

“That kind of situation is quite risky,” he added.

Mr. Marcos earlier suspended rice imports for 60 days starting Sept. 1 to protect Filipino farmers during the harvest season and stabilize rice prices. The suspension was originally supposed to end on Nov. 2 and applies only to regular milled and well-milled rice.

“We will extend the rice import stoppage until the end of 2025,” Mr. Tiu Laurel said.

He said the Philippines, the world’s top rice buyer, had imported about 3.5 million metric tons (MMT) of rice as of end-September, overshooting this year’s rice import target by 800,000 tons.

“We should be at the 2.7 [MMT levels] in imported rice, so we are… in excess,” he said. “The monthly import volume should only be around 300,000 tons, or 3.6 MMT a year.”