Palay harvest to be 'generally good'

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said the palay (unmilled rice) harvest for this year would be «generally good» with an expected yield of 3.063 million metric tons (MT) for November and December.

«Based on data and information from the Philippine Rice Information System, it is generally a good harvest year for the Filipino rice farmers,» Agriculture Assistant Secretary and spokesman Arnel de Mesa said on Tuesday.

The Agriculture department also said that a sufficient supply of affordable rice would remain in the market as the wet season crop was almost complete.

«We have harvested about 90 percent of palay across the nation,» de Mesa said.

He added that palay was currently being sold at an average of P23 to 25 per kilogram (kg) at the farmgate, still in line with the new price range set by the National Food Authority (NFA).

In September, the NFA announced that the new buying price for dry palay would be P23 per kg from P19 and that for wet at P19 per kg from P16.

The DA said the average retail price for regular milled rice was P42.80 per kg while the prevailing price for well-milled rice was P45 per kg.

For the national rice outlook for this year, de Mesa said this was estimated to reach around 20 million MT and likely a new record harvest.

In 2022, the Philippines logged 19.7 million MT of palay output. The record is 19.96 million MT, attained in 2021.

Local production of palay hit 5.04 million MT in the third quarter of 2023, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has reported.

Based on the seasonally adjusted rice production and prices report, PSA said that palay output from July to September went up by 0.4 percent from the previous quarter's 5.03 million MT.

Year on year, palay output was higher by 1.0 percent from the 4.9 million MT recorded in the same period last year.