On June 20, 2024, based on authority granted by law and proposal of relevant agencies, Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos, JR. issued Executive Order No. 62, which will reduce import tax on many items. For rice, import tax will be reduced from 35% to 15%, with the implementation period until 2028.
This can be considered the latest move by the Philippine Government to deal with inflation, especially price of rice which has been continuously increasing in market since the beginning of this year.
In the first quarter of 2024, the Philippine economy is relatively stable, except for increase in prices of some essential consumer goods, especially rice, with an increase in the first quarter of 2024 of about 24.4%. Rice prices account for about 9% of the Philippines' consumer price index (CPI).
Effective date of Decree No. 62 is 30 days from date of publication, for rice import tax, application date is 15 days from date of publication. Thus, application date of new rice import tax rate of the Philippines is expected to be in early August 2024.
Vietnam Trade Office in the Philippines said that Vietnam is still the largest rice export partner of the Philippines. From January 1 to May 23, Vietnam exported 1.44 million tonnes of rice to the Philippines, accounting for 72.9% of the total rice imports of the Philippines.
Thailand ranked second with 300,227 tonnes of rice exports to the Philippines, followed by Pakistan with 144,834 tonnes and Myanmar with 65,080 tonnes. The rest were imported from India, China, Japan, Cambodia, Italy and Spain.
In 2023, total rice import volume of the Philippines reached 3.6 million tonnes, down 5.9% compared to the record level in 2022 with 3.82 million tonnes. However, in 2024, total rice import volume of the Philippines is expected to reach about 4 million tonnes.
According to information from some enterprises, the Philippine market is quite fond of Vietnamese DT8 and 5451 rice varieties due to their soft texture. Currently, Vietnamese rice dominates Metro Manila area and the southern provinces because Vietnamese rice is delicious and has a reasonable price. This is an opportunity for Vietnamese rice and paddy exporting enterprises in the second half of 2024.
In recent years, Vietnam has always been the largest rice exporting partner, accounting for over 80% of total rice imported into the Philippine market. There are some opinions that the Philippines' reduction of rice import tax will create more favorable conditions and increase opportunities for Vietnamese rice in the Philippine market.
The latest data provided by Plant Department (Philippine Department of Agriculture) shows that from January 1 to May 23, total rice imported by the Philippines increased by 20.3% compared to the first 5 months of 2023, reaching 1.97 million tonnes, much higher than import level of 1.64 million tonnes in the first 5 months of 2023. Since beginning of this year, Plant Department has issued 4,066 rice import clearance licenses to importing enterprises.

Source: Vitic/ congthuong.vn