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| Rice retail store in the Philippines. (Photo: Vietnam Trade Office in the Philippines) |
Specifically, on June 20, Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. issued a decree cutting import taxes on many products. As for rice products, the import tax will be cut from 35% to 15%, applicable until 2028.
The Vietnam Trade Office in the Philippines said that this is the latest move of the Philippine Government to deal with inflation, especially rice prices that have tended to increase continuously in the market since the beginning of the year
In the first quarter of 2024, the Philippine economic situation is relatively stable, except for the 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).
The Philippines’ new rice import tax is expected to be applied in early August 2024.
In recent years, Vietnam has always been the largest rice export partner, accounting for over 80% of the total amount of rice imported into the Philippine market. The Philippines’ rice import tax reduction will create more advantages and increase opportunities for Vietnamese rice in the market.
Mr. Phung Van Thanh, Commercial Counselor of the Vietnam Trade Office in the Philippines, said that in the first five months of this year, Vietnam is still the Philippines’ largest rice export partner with 1.44 million tons, accounting for 72.9% of the total amount of rice imported by the country.
In 2024, the Philippines expects to import about 4 million tons of rice from foreign markets.
According to some businesses, the market is quite fond of Vietnamese rice varieties of DT8 and 5451 due to their softness. Currently, Vietnamese rice dominates the Metro Manila area and the southern provinces, because Vietnamese rice is delicious and reasonably priced./.