Cereal, fertilizer prices remain stable in April

CEBU, Philippines – Cereal and fertilizer prices remained stable last week on steady oil prices, the weekly price monitoring report of the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics bared.

The monitoring report, which covered April 8 to 14, indicated that there was no trading for fancy, fresh and dry palay, as well as yellow corn grain in the farm gate. But white corn grain was traded at P19. 69 to as high as P21.23 per kilo; this week it traded at P20. 46 per kilo, which remained steady from that of the previous week.

For wholesale, fancy rice was traded as low as P38 per kilo, which was similar to the prevailing price from last week while premium rice was traded from P33.20 to P38 per kilo and the prevailing price was at P35 per kilo which is steady from the price of last week.

Well-milled rice (WMR) was traded at P30.40 to as high as P33 per kilo and prevailing prices for that week remained steady from last week at P32 per kilo.

Regular milled rice (RMR) on the other hand was traded as low as P26 to as high as P30 per kilo on the wholesale and prevailing price was at P30, which just slightly increased from previous week’s P29. 20 per kilo.

There was no trading for yellow and white corn grain but yellow corngrits was traded at P21.25 to P23.75 per kilo with prevailing price of P21.25 and white corngrits was at P29.50 to as high as P32 per kilo with prevailing price of P31.25 which remained steady from last week.

For retail, there was no trading for fancy rice but premium rice was priced at P37.50 to P40 per kilo with a prevailing price of P38, which decreased from previous week’s P40 per kilo.

WMR was traded as low as P33 to as high as P37 per kilo with a prevailing price of P34 per kilo which remained steady from last week.

RMR was priced at P28 to as high as 32.50 per kilo w8ith a prevailing price of P32 per kilo which slightly increased from previous week’s P31 per kilo.

There was also no trading for yellow and white corngrain in the retail level but yellow corngrits was traded at P24 per kilo while white corngrits was at P32 to P34 per kilo with a prevailing price of P33, similar to that of the previous week.

Meanwhile, for dealer prices of fertilizer, BAS reported that urea (45-0-0) was priced at P950 to as high as P1, 000 per 50 kilograms with a prevailing price of P970 which was steady from the previous week while complete (14-14-14) was traded at P1, 150 to as high as P1, 200 and prices remained steady from that of last week.

Amosul (21-0-0) was priced at P470 to P550 with a prevailing price of P509 per 50 kilograms; Ammophos (10-20-0) was at P1, 050 to as high as P1, 130 with a prevailing price of P1, 093 per 50 kilos, which is similar to the previous week.

However, with the recent price increases of major oil companies in the market, commodity prices are also expected to increase this week. — Rhia de Pablo (THE FREEMAN)