Palay farmgate prices up in June

MANILA, Philippines — The average farmgate prices of palay or unhusked rice increased by 2.3 percent to P17.58 per kilogram in June,  latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.

This brought the second quarter average to P17.35 per kilogram, an increase of 1.6 percent from the average farmgate price of P17.07 per kilogram in the same period last year.

Of the 16 regions, seven  saw annual increases which contributed to the overall year-on-year growth.

The PSA data showed Western Visayas continued to post the highest annual increment at 16.6 percent during the month followed by the Central Visayas with a 14.3 percent jump.

On the other hand, nine regions recorded price declines, with the MIMAROPA region having the highest decline at 7.2 percent followed by the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) at 4.2 percent.

On a month-on-month basis, the average farmgate price of palay per kilogram increased by two percent from P17.24 per kilogram in May.

The highest monthly growth was recorded in Eastern Visayas at 18.7 percent while the biggest decline was seen in the Caraga Region at 3.2 percent.

The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) earlier attributed the increase to higher fertilizer, production and marketing costs, slightly increasing import prices, and relatively tighter supply in the market compared to last year.

As of July 1, the country’s rice inventory declined by 6.6 percent from 2.18 million metric tons last year to 2.03 million MT, according to PSA’s latest rice and corn stocks inventory report.

On a month-on-month basis, the inventory is 2.7 percent lower than the 2.09 million MT registered in June.

According to the PSA,  rice stocks inventory in commercial warehouses/wholesalers/retailers dropped by 17.9 percent, and by 22 percent  in National Food Authority   depositories.  However, stocks in households grew by eight percent.

For this year, estimates of the Philippine Rice Research Institute showed palay production could decrease by as much as 1.1 to 1.3 million metric tons.

This will  come  from the 19.96 million metric tons (MT) record level of production last year.

Palay production for the first semester already dropped by 6.8 percent to 4.5 million MT from 4.63 million MT due to rising prices of fertilizer.