This, as the food inflation rose to 6.1% last April.
According to Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., the government is stepping up targeted measures to contain rising food prices caused by the Middle East conflict.
The said geopolitical crisis has since spilled over into the broader economy, pushing up logistics and transport costs, with the Philippine food inflation climbing to 6.1 percent in April, more than double the 2.7 percent recorded in March, according to the Philippine Statictics Authority (PSA)
This reflects mounting pressure on household budgets, with the impact being pronounced among lower-income groups as inflation for the bottom 30 percent of households accelerating to 8.5 percent from 0.1 percent a year earlier.
The PSA showed rice as the primary driver of the inflation, with prices jumping 13.7 percent from 3.5 percent in the previous month.
Corn, fish, and vegetables also posted faster increases, while cereals accounted for more than half of the rise in food inflation, highlighting how sensitive staple prices are to supply chain costs.
Tiu Laurel noted, “Clearly, this price shock is a knee-jerk reaction to the surge in prices of petroleum products.“
He then added that the country has sufficient supply for rice, poultry, meats, vegetable, and other commodities, yet the cost of logistics and transport has propped up prices.
“We have moved to provide financial aid to agri-truckers to keep food prices affordable, and mobilized other offices to bring food from production hubs to markets,” the DA chief furthered.
To blunt these cost pressures, the Department of Agriculture (DA), in coordination with other agencies, has reestablished dedicated food lanes, removing toll fees for agricultural trucks and reducing port charges to speed up deliveries and cut logistics costs.
Fuel subsidies have also been rolled out to ease the burden in the food supply chain.
The DA’s Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Division has also intensified market monitoring, conducting more frequent visits to ensure retail prices remain within reasonable levels and to deter excessive markups.
The national government is also accelerating the rollout of key programs, including the Benteng Bigas, Meron Na! initiative, which offers rice at P20 per kilo to vulnerable sectors, alongside the Rice-for-All program for the broader market.
Tiu Laurel also added that authorities are prepared to impose a P50 per kilo price cap on imported rice if price pressures persist.