September 25, 2025 | 10:49 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is moving to tighten the country's rice import policy by extending the current two-month import moratorium and raising the tariff on foreign rice imports. This was announced by the Philippine Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday as reported by Antara on Thursday, September 25, 2025.
Philippine Agriculture Minister Francisco Tiu Laurel said that Marcos has instructed the ministry to prepare the necessary order to extend the import suspension.
"The duration of the import freeze and the possible increase in taxes on imported rice will be determined once we have more accurate data on supply and prices of palay at the farm gate," said Tiu Laurel after a discussion with Marcos, as quoted from Inquirer.
The import freeze, which began on September 1 and was scheduled to end on November 2, was initially implemented to help farmers recover from the drop in paddy prices triggered by an influx of cheaper rice imports.
Philippine rice imports reached 3.08 million metric tons this year, based on September data as reported by Inquirer. This amount is equivalent to 64.1 percent of last year's record high volume of 4.8 million metric tons, according to data from the Bureau of Plant Industry.
Vietnam contributed 51.5 percent of the total rice imports, followed by Myanmar with a 7.1 percent share. Other suppliers include Thailand, China, Pakistan, India, Japan, Singapore, Korea, and Spain.
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