Rice prices are expected to slightly ease as India lifts a ban on the export of its non-Basmati White Rice, Department of Agriculture (DA) officials said Saturday.

In a forum in Quezon City, Assistant Agriculture Secretary and spokesperson Arnel de Mesa said "non-Basmati white rice ...represents 40 percent of the total rice that is being traded worldwide."

"That is how important that the export ban was lifted. One of the good things is Indian rice is much cheaper compared to the rice from other countries," he said.

"Although there is an increasing demand for food during the holiday season, because of these new developments, we can expect that the price of rice will slightly ease," he added.

De Mesa said the government is hoping to reduce the price of rice in the country to around 30 pesos per kilo in the coming months.

"When we checked the market the price of imported regular milled rice is around 42 pesos (per kilo) and the well-milled rice is at 45 pesos, We want it to further reduce to the level of 30’s hopefully in the next coming months," he said.

The January to June importation, on average, is more than 400,000 per metric ton. For July to September, on average it's around 300,000 metric tons. So, most of the imported rice will arrive in the last quarter of the year in preparation for the lean season before the harvest this March-April of next year," he added.

De Mesa said rice inflation in September decreased significantly to single digit at 5.7 percent from 25 to 27 percent in previous months.

"The main driver of this decrease in food inflation is due to the declining price of rice from 15.7 percent last month to 4.7 percent or 5.7 percent," he said. Robina Asido/DMS