The Implications of Rice Tariffication Law to the Rice Trading Industy In a Highly Urbanized City in the Philippines

Rice is an essential commodity and a staple food in the Philippines; the implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law further aims to reform the rice sector and address the rice shortage. This research study aims to determine the implications of Republic Act No. 11203 or Rice Tariffication Law to the rice trading industry in Mandaue City, particularly in the rice retail sector, and know how it affects the three aspects: supply, demand, and price of rice. This research is a qualitative study utilizing the Phenomenological Approach. The researchers used a purposive sampling technique where participants were determined based on the already set qualifications by the researchers and interviewed ten (10) participants who were the rice retailers from Mandaue City. The gathering of data was in the form of an online semi-structured interview aided by a researcher-made interview questionnaire as a primary instrument used. The researchers then utilized Colaizzi’s seven-step method for the data analysis. The findings revealed that the law provided positive and negative implications for the rice trading industry, particularly the rice retail sector. The positive implications, such as an increased rice supply and a wide variety of rice options, placed the participants at an advantage. In contrast, the negative implications revealed an intense degree of competition and low sales of local rice products. The law also affected the supply by having a lesser supply of local rice but more supply of the imported ones. In the aspect of demand, it causes an increase in the demand for imported rice, while in terms of price, it appears that imported rice is cheaper than the local rice.