MANILA - Ricardo Chiu is now the only rice retailer in Dagonoy Market in the city of Manila who is selling the 28 pesos per kilo rice.

Other retailers no longer have any stocks of the 28-peso rice and are now selling at 30 pesos and above.

Suppliers have already warned of another increase in prices, and Ricardo thinks he will soon be forced to raise prices as well.

Chiu says he has no choice but to increase prices since suppliers are the ones who have raised prices.

"Di pwedeng di magtaas kasi mga supplier na yung nagtaas eh," he says.

The Grains Confederation of the Philippines warns there is a possibility that the rice crisis last year may happen again due to the damage created by Ondoy and Pepeng on ricefields and facilities.

Teresa Alegado, president of the Grains Confederation of the Philippines, says another rice crisis is not far-fetched, but not in the short-term.

"Tataas pa yan kasi ngayon may stocks pa eh," she says.

The Philippines is expected to experience at least four or five more typhoons until the end of the year.
 
But the Department of Agriculture (DA) says there is nothing to be worried about since the National Food Authority (NFA) still has enough carry-over stocks.
 
The NFA will also continue to sell subsidized rice in wet markets.
 
The DA has previously said they may import up to 2 million tons in 2010. DA Secretary Arthur Yap says there is no need to ration rice since the country still has enough stocks.

But former National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) chief Ralph Recto believes the government should also allot part of the funds for rice imports to local farmers in order to help normalize local production.

He noted that the back-to-back typhoons “hit the jugular of the country's rice growing regions” - Central Luzon and Central Visayas. 

“The provinces hit – Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Cagayan, Bulacan, Tarlac - comprise the country's rice bowl and that bowl will contain water only  if no help is coming soon ,''  he added .

He said government must  "normalize domestic production capability," and that "the recovery curve will be shorter if farmers are directly given seeds, fertilizers and other production input."

“Government should peel away one-tenth of its projected rice import budget of  P40  billion for  2010 and use this to help affected rice farmers get back on their feet,” Recto said. -- with reports from Zen Hernandez, ABS-CBN News