DA: 1M metric tons of palay lost to El Niño, typhoons

CEBU, Philippines — The country has lost at least one million metric tons (MT) of palay supply so far this year after farms were devastated by extreme weather conditions that included El Niño phenomenon and the series of typhoons with Kristine being the most devastating to date.

Since January, the local rice industry has lost about 1.024 million MT of palay or unmilled rice as of Nov. 4, based on the damage report of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

Severe Tropical Storm Kristine alone accounted for half or about 516,438 MT of the recorded production losses in the rice industry, according to the DA.

Before Kristine, the DA had already recorded 507,564.39 MT in palay losses because of El Niño and the series of weather disturbances.

The recorded palay production losses so far have breached the average annual losses of 500,000 MT to 600,000 MT, according to agriculture officials.

"It is already more than our regular losses," Agriculture assistant secretary and spokesman Arnel De Mesa said yesterday.

"We can expect that our [palay] output this year would fall compared to last year because of the huge damage caused by El Niño and the series of typhoons," De Mesa added.

The 1.02 million MT recorded palay production losses could translate to around 670,000 MT of milled rice based on the Philippine Statistics Authority's average billing rate of 65.4 percent.

Despite the production losses, De Mesa assured the public that the country would have sufficient rice stocks while prices would remain stable in the market thanks to continued arrival of imports.

The country's rice imports as of Oct. 30 have reached 3.79 million MT, surpassing last year's 3.606 million MT, based on latest Bureau of Plant Industry data.

Retail prices of imported rice ranged from a low of P42 per kilo to a high of P55 per kilo, according to the DA. Meanwhile, locally-produced commercial rice ranged between P40 and P54 per kilo.

The DA earlier estimated that palay production could fall to a four-year low of 19.41 million MT as a result of the impact of the extreme weather conditions. The estimated output is nearly a million MT lower than its previous estimate of 20.4 million MT.

The latest production forecast is even 6.68 percent lower than the department’s initial projection for the year of 20.8 million MT.

On an annual basis, the full-year projected palay output is 3.24 percent lower than last year’s record-high harvest of 20.06 million MT. — (FREEMAN)