Philippine Rice Price history

Methodology

To track the real-time retail prices of rice in the Philippines, we implemented a data pipeline that extracts daily price information from major online grocery retailers such as SM Supermarket and Waltermart. The primary focus of this monitoring system is on two of the most widely consumed rice varieties in the Philippines: Dinorado and Sinandomeng.

Given that stock-keeping units (SKUs) vary in package size—ranging from 2kg to 25kg—we normalize all prices to a per-kilogram basis. This standardization enables consistent price comparisons across brands, stores, and time.

Only SKUs explicitly labeled as Dinorado or Sinandomeng are included in the dataset to ensure accuracy and relevance. The system is designed to capture and store these prices daily, enabling time series analysis and visualization of retail price trends for these staple food items.

This approach provides a high-resolution view of short-term price movements, helping consumers, researchers, and policymakers understand how rice prices evolve across different platforms in near real time.Because stock-keeping units (SKUs) vary widely in size—ranging from 2kg to 25kg—all prices are normalized on a per-kilogram basis. This allows for meaningful comparisons across different brands, packaging sizes, and retailers.

Only SKUs explicitly labeled as Dinorado or Sinandomeng are included to ensure consistency and relevance. Prices are collected and stored daily, creating a time series that reflects how consumer-facing prices evolve.

It’s important to note that daily price fluctuations may occur due to SKU availability. If a particular SKU is not available on a given day, the system records the price of the next available matching product. While this can introduce some variability, it also highlights a key insight: these are the actual prices available to consumers at the time of access. As such, this method provides a more realistic and responsive indicator of how rice prices change over time in the retail market.