The supply of rice in the country will remain sufficient in the coming months, the Department of Agriculture (DA) assured on Tuesday, June 27.
“By the end of June, the stock available will be good for more than 2 months, in [addition] to the incoming supply from the new harvest and import arrivals in the coming months,” DA’s Masagana Rice Industry Program Head Undersecretary Leo Sebastian said.
He noted that the amount of rice harvested from the January–June planting season is expected to give a 6% production increase.
According to Sebastian, the volume, including the carry over stock of approximately 1.8 MMT milled rice and those augmented by import amounting to 1.8 MMT will be “enough to fill in the demand/consumption of 7 MMT from January to June.”
“This is based on PhilRice PRISM data of 8.153 MMT (million metric tons) palay production in 2022 to 8.605 MMT palay or 5.6 MMT milled rice in 2023,” Sebastian noted.
Dry palay farmgate prices continue to increase
Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the farmgate price of dry palay continued to increase in April 2023 at 18.79 per kilogram (kg).
This indicates an annual increase of 9.1% from the P17.23 per kg in the same month last year, and a 1.2% increment from its price level of P18.57 per kg in March 2023.
PSA noted that the highest farmgate price of palay last April was observed in Northern Mindanao at P20.77 per kg, while the lowest was posted in Eastern Visayas at P16.09 per kg.
“All regions continued to record positive annual increments in the average farmgate price of palay in April 2023,” PSA said, noting that the highest year-on-year increase was registered in Northern Mindanao at 14.6%.
Month-on-month, only the Cordillera Administrative Region, Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, and Eastern Visayas posted decreases for the April 2023 price level. Justin Ilano –cf