Rice prices may continue to increase until the harvest season starts next month, Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. president Danilo Fausto said on Saturday.

In a radio interview, Fausto said based on his estimate the prices of rice in the country may increase "between two to four pesos per kilo" until the local harvest starts in September.

On Friday, the Philippine Statistics Authority pointed out that rice inflation rose from 2.2 percent in February to 4.2 percent in June.

"Our hope is if the buffer (stock) can be supported by mid-September and the harvest season will start in Central Luzon, even Cagayan, I think the price will go down," he said.

"After September, in the last quarter we will have a large harvest, we will preserve about 37 percent of the total supply. We harvest it normally in the last quarter of the year in October, November to December," he added.

Fausto said "based on the data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), in the last quarter and first quarter, 60 percent of our total supply was harvested during this period."

He added that the price of imported rice may increase.

In another interview, Sinag chairman Rosendo So said the previous price of Vietnam rice of 520 (dollars) became 530 dollars per metric ton. ''Yesterday, it was 590 to 600 dollars already," he added.

So said around 4.7 million metric tons of rice are expected to be harvested from October to December this year.

"From October down to December, we will not have any problem because of the large harvest here in the country and we see that up to February, March, we will have enough supply," he added. Robina Asido/DMS