The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) painted a rosy picture in its latest report on the palay and unhusked farmgate prices. The price increased by 2.3 percent to P17.62 per kilogram in August this year.
In the second quarter of 2022, the prices averaged at P17.35 per kilogram, showing an increase of 1.6 percent from the farmgate price of P17.07 per kilogram In the same period in 2021.
All but 2 of the 16 rice producing regions showed annual increases on a year-to-year assessment. Western Visayas (Region 6), maintained to post the highest annual increment at13.6 percent in August followed by Bicol Region’s 9.9 percent leap.
The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) was quoted saying “. . .farmgate price of palay is typically high in the third quarter. And that “. . . despite the improvement in farmgate price this is ‘very small’ as against the ‘P3 toP5 per kilo increase in production costs due to higher fertilizer, fuel and other inputs.”
The prices of palay are down beginning July due to large volumes of imports that came in versus the previous month, as well as the advent of the rainy weather.
MY COMMENT:
An increase in the palay farmgate price is always a welcomed news to farmers – it means more revenue to buy food for the family. Any such price increase in palay is dictated by man- and nature-made factors. The Philippines, path of typhoons averaging 22 annually, affect the country’s main staple food, aggravated by flooding of rice fields. Also, it has to contend with the DA importation policy.
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