The average farm-gate price of unhusked rice in the first week of May recorded an increase for the first time in four months, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
In its “Updates on Palay, Rice and Corn Prices,” the PSA said the average palay quotation nationwide of P18.45 per kilogram, was 0.27 percent higher than the P18.40/kg in end-April. This is the first time since the fourth week of December that traders offered a higher price for local palay.
“On an annual basis, it dropped further by 12 percent from its previous year’s same-week level of P20.97 per kg,” the PSA added.
From May 1 to 7, the PSA observed the highest price of farm-gate price in Northern Mindanao at P20.34 per kg. The PSA noted the lowest average palay buying price in Caraga at P15.81 per kilogram.
The average farm-gate prices of palay have been declining since January as traders feared that cheap imports will flood the country following the liberalization of the Philippine rice trade.
Despite the slight hike in farm-gate prices, average quotations for both wholesale and retail prices of regular-milled and well-milled rice continued to go down during the period.
On a weekly basis, the average wholesale price of well-milled rice went down slightly to P39.55 per kg, from the previous week’s P39.72 per kg. It was also 3.9-percent lower than the average of P41.13 per kg recorded in the same period last year, PSA data showed.
“At the retail trade, the average price of well-milled rice at P43.30 per kg decreased further by 0.5 percent during the week from its previous week’s level of P43.52 per kg,” the PSA said.
“Similarly, it declined by 1.3 percent from the same period of previous year’s level of P43.88 per kilogram,” the PSA added.
The PSA observed the same price trends in the average quotations of regular-milled rice nationwide.
“On the average, the wholesale price of regular-milled rice at P36 per kg fell by 0.5 percent compared with its previous week’s level of P36.18 per kg,” it said.
“Likewise, it posted a 4.5-percent decline
compare with the same week of previous year’s level of P37.7 per kilogram,”
it added.
At the retail trade, the average price of regular-milled rice fell by 0.5 percent to P38.97 per kg from P39.15 per kg in the previous week, the PSA said. The latest average quotation was 2.7 percent lower than the P40.04 per kilogram recorded in the same week last year, it added.
After harvesting rice from February to April, farmers are expected to start planting rice for the wet season this month.
The Department of Agriculture is targeting to produce 20 million metric tons of palay this year, nearly 5 percent higher than the 19.06 MMT produced in 2018.
Image credits: Laila Austria
2 comments
Talagang tataas ang presyo ng palay kasi planting season yan.
I am Cristina P.Ellana a farmer in Purok 1, Maligaya, Science City of Munoz and LGU employee at the Nueva Ecija Provincial Government in Palayan City. In the previous years, my net income in rice production (seeds) is P 80,000 to P100,000/crop But this wet season of 2019, I find difficulty in selling my harvested rice which I processed as certified seed (NSIC -RC 10 ). I am selling it a cheaper cost of P950/bag This variety matures at 104 days during rainy and 100 days in the dry season. Production capacity is 5.0 mt-5.5 mt.ha. I harvested last September 9, 2019.