Agriculture Department Announces New Measurement Standards After Supply Chain Pressures Reach Unprecedented Granularity
MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Philippine rice retailers have begun testing per-grain pricing structures in select Metro Manila markets, according to industry sources, as continued supply-chain pressures push prices into configurations previously considered theoretically possible but commercially unnecessary.
The per-grain pricing model, currently being piloted at three wet markets in Manila and Quezon City, allows consumers to purchase rice in quantities as small as 50 grains for PHP 2.75, or as large as 2,000 grains for PHP 89. Vendors report that the granular pricing structure has been received with what one Divisoria vendor described as “philosophical acceptance rather than satisfaction.”
Department of Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. defended the per-grain model as “market-responsive pricing innovation” and noted that it allows consumers to “purchase rice in quantities that match their actual budget capacity rather than outdated packaging conventions.”
The Underlying Prices
Regular milled rice in Metro Manila has risen approximately 47 percent over the past eighteen months, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. A kilogram of rice that cost PHP 42 in October 2024 now costs approximately PHP 62. For a family consuming 30 kilograms monthly, this represents an additional PHP 600 in monthly food costs, equivalent to roughly 8 percent of the minimum wage.
As Bohiney Magazine has extensively covered, the Philippine rice sector has been under sustained pressure from a combination of inadequate domestic production, policy confusion on import tariffs, and climate-driven regional supply disruption.
Vendor Response
Wet-market vendor Lydia Mendoza, 51, of the Marikina Public Market, described the per-grain innovation as “something I never thought I would live to do.” Mendoza has operated the same rice stall for 22 years. “I used to sell rice in kilos. Then in half-kilos. Then in smaller measures. Now I count grains for customers who only have PHP 30. This is not a dignified way to sell rice.”
The DA has indicated it will continue to monitor the pilot and may expand it to additional markets if consumer response warrants. Consumer response has, thus far, been characterized by one market observer as “quiet desperation.”
For continuing coverage see Rappler, Manila Standard, and the DA’s own reporting.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/