Average palay farmgate price increased in June but decreases in stocks of rice and corn were observed in July, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The PSA reported that national average farmgate price hit P17.58 per kilogram for the period, up by 2.3 percent from June 2021’s P17.18 per kilogram. The amount is also 2 percent higher from May 2022’s P17.24 per kg.
The agency did not mention factors that affected palay farmgate prices but noted that seven provinces saw increases year-on-year as of June 2022.
Provinces that experienced double digit growths included Western Visayas with 16.6 percent or from P16.44 per kg to P19.17 per kg; Central Visayas, 14.3 percent or from P17.36 per kg to P19.84 per kg; and Bicol, 10.6 percent or from P15.29 per kg to P16.90 per kg.
On the other hand, nine provinces recorded declines in terms of average palay farmgate prices for the period.
Among the worst performers were Mimaropa with a 7.2 percent drop or from P18.37 per kg to P17.05 per kg; Cordillera Administrative Region, 4.2 percent decline or from P18.08 per kg to P17.32 per kg; and Northern Mindanao, lower by 3.9 percent or from P18.45 per kg to P17.73 per kg.
At the same time, the PSA reported that inventory stocks of both rice and corn at the start of July recorded year-on-year declines.
The country’s traditional lean months for rice is from July to September.
The report noted that as of July 1, 2022, total rice stocks inventory in the country was at 2.03 million metric tons (MT), over 6 percent lower from the 2.18 million MT recorded for the similar period last year.
Likewise, rice stocks inventory level for July 2022 went down by 2.7 percent compared with June 2022’s 2.09 million MT.
Over 52 percent of July 2022’s total rice stocks inventory were from households, followed by the almost 40 percent from commercial warehouses, wholesalers and retailers, with the remaining almost 8 percent from National Food Authority’s depositories.
As for the country’s corn stocks, inventory reached 746,920 MT as of July 1, an over 19 percent decrease from July 2021’s 924,250 MT.
In a month-on-month comparison, the country’s corn stocks inventory dropped by over 14 percent from June 2022’s inventory level of 873,480 MT.
PSA said of the July 2022 total corn stocks inventory, almost 90 percent is from commercial warehouses, wholesalers and retailers with the remaining 10 percent from households.
Earlier, the Department of Agriculture(DA) warned that local production of rice, corn and other crops this year may be affected if farmers continue to use less volume of fertilizers due to its elevated cost apart from higher prices of fuel products and other inputs.
The DA also mentioned that without the P15 billion fertilizer subsidies for rice farmers, rice production this year can go back to the 2020 production level of 19.3 million MT, lower by more than 3 percent from the record 2021 harvest of 19.96 million MT.
