Both consumption and prices of rice in Philippines had increased in the recent years. There is an increase in the total consumption of rice from 2017 to 2018 by 2.22 percent.  As for rice prices, there is an even greater overall increase by more than 10 percent in recent years. The magnitude of price elasticity of rice in Philippines is lesser than 1.
Thus, it can concluded that rice in Philippines is an inelastic good.

As mentioned in the article, poorer families might change the amount of rice they consume due to the increase in rice prices. However, for families that are able to afford the increased price of rice, they would not reduce their consumption for rice.

Explanation:
Rice is considered a necessity in Philippines and it is one of the most widely consumed staple food. Thus, even if there is an increase in the price of rice, the demand for rice will roughly not have much differences or there will be a smaller change as compared to the changes in prices.
Since price increases while demand remains the same, there will be more sellers in this industry, selling the same rice. Hence perfect competition is present
Articles:
https://businessmirror.com.ph/snapshot-of-rice-consumption-data-remains-grainy-as-pinoys-grapple-with-supply-prices/

There is a shortage of supply of rice in Philippines due to a typhoon which has damaged the fields, thus affecting the yield of rice. This caused rice to retail at a very high price, making it unaffordable for the locals. 

To tame the high retail prices of rice and ease the burden of consumers from the high rice costs, the Philippines government decided to allocate P18 billion worth of subsidy for the importation program. The importation program consist of bidding on the price of rice with Thailand and Vietnam. Bidding onthe price of rice in auctions will increase the volume of rice imports. Rice imported are also at a more affordable price.  Subsidies are provided to producers. With rice imported at a more affordable price, sellers will have a decrease in cost of production, and are more able and willing to sell more rice. Thus, increasing the supply of rice in Philippines, to meet the high demand.
 

Since the implementation of the importation program, leading to the arrival of rice imports, rice prices have been going down for a month and are expected to decline further, with more arrivals of rice which are more affordable for the locals. This shows the market adjusting to equilibrium.

However, government of Thailand and Vietnam did not agree to the reference price set by the National Food Authority and offered rice at prices which were much higher than National Food Authority's guidelines. Hence, this led to a failed bidding, where the rice bid in this auction was supposed to cover the remaining volume that was not obtained during the previous auction.

The failed bidding would delay the arrival of imports, causing a delay in the increase of supply of rice in Philippines. Which leads, to a delay in the decrease of retail price of rice.

The agricultural labor force had been drastically declining. As a result, there is a decline in supply which caused the supply curve to shift leftwards. This is mainly caused by decrease in number of sellers which is a non-price determinant. 

 

1.     Number of sellers 

The Philippines government is importing rice from other countries to meet the needs of the locals. This results in increase in the number of sellers and causing the supply to increase and supply curve to shift slightly towards the right. 

As a result of this, the price of rice in Philippines would decrease while the quantity of rice increases. This is not beneficial for local farmers as they would have to lower their prices as the price of the imported rice would be lower and thus to stay competitive, they would have to lower their prices even lower. This resulted in an even larger decrease in local farmers causing number of sellers to decline by a larger percentage and supply to decrease and supply curve to shift leftwards. 

There is a shortage in the supply of rice in the Philippines due to a typhoon which has damaged the fields and then affected the yield of rice, ultimately decreasing in the number of sellers/ farmers/ producers which then led to a further decrease in the supply of rice, and due to the shortage of rice, there has been a high demand for rice in the Philippines, thus causing sellers to increase the prices of rice. 

There is an increase in supply of rice which is cause by an increase in number of buyers which is a non - price determinants which caused the supply curve to shift rightwards.

1.  Number of buyers
The rising population of Philippines caused an increase in the number of buyers.  thus having a larger population will lead to higher demand.  

2. Taste and Preferences
Rice is a staple and popular food in the Philippines
As seen from the article, the country’s total rice consumption for 2017 and 2018 is forecasted to increase by 2.22 percent to 13.8 MMT, from 13.5 MMT recorded demand in 2016 and 2017, according to the FAO. Therefore, indicating that a Filipino would eat 115.2 kilograms of rice in 2017 and 2018, which is 700 grams more than the 114.5 per kilogram per-capita consumption in 2016 and 2017.
Thus, showing how the demand for rice in the Philippines is very high as it is a staple good thus being the taste and preference of the people in the Philippines.

        Quantity Demand of Rice
Due to the increasing prices, it would then reduce the purchasing power of of the incomes of the poor families. Thus when the good increases in price, the quantity demanded would then be less.

https://businessmirror.com.ph/phl-rice-production-seen-reaching-12-9-mmt-in-2018/

When we look at the market structure of rice in Philippines, we have to consider the factors such as the number of sellers and buyers in the market, product uniformity , ease of entry and exit and as well as information available in the market. 

1. Number of Sellers and Buyers
Rice accounts for 20% of Philippines gross value added agriculture. This shows that rice makes up a considerable portion of the agriculture industry in Philippines.

Rice is also one of the main staple food in Philippines that is most commonly consumed.

It can be inferred that there are many rice sellers and buyers in Philippines.

2. Information in the Market 

From the article, we are able to gather many information and statistics about rice prices. Rice prices in Philippines from the past decade is shown in the article. This shows that buyers and sellers have high level and quantity of information. 

3. Product Uniformity
According to the article, there are 2 types of rice available in the market and these are regular milled rice and well milled rice. Rice sellers in Philippines mainly supply these two types of rice. There is no differences in the rice supplied by different sellers in Philippines due to the fact that it is an agricultural product. Hence, rice supplied in Philippines by different sellers is exactly the same. 
 

According to the article, Philippines government uses tariff to control rice prices. In addition, buyers have near perfect information about rice prices and supply in Philippines. These factors made rice sellers in Philippines as price takers. 

Hence, it can be concluded that characteristics of rice in Philippines resembles a perfect competition market.
http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/bodies/CL_149/SideEvents_CL149/Rice/Presentation_RRI-Philippines.pdf

https://www.philstar.com/business/2018/08/03/1839054/rice-prices-remain-high-next-3-years

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/08/22/1844786/rice-prices-8th-straight-month