The Department of Agriculture (DA) said palay production in the first quarter is expected to hit 4.89 million metric tons (MT), equivalent to 3.20 million MT of rice.
This boosts hopes the palay output will exceed last year’s expected record-breaking harvest.
This means the country would import less rice this year.
In a briefing yesterday, DA Undersecretary Ariel Cayanan saidfor the entire year, the DA sees palay production reaching 20.4 million MT. The country would have to import 1.69 million MT of rice compared with last year’s 2 million MT.
“With this situation, we expect rice supply to be sufficient for 99 days by yearend,” Cayanan said.
Ahead of the release of official figures, the DA said 2020 palay production reached 19.44 million MT, comprised of the actual production of 11.9 MMT from January to September and projected harvest of 7.54 million MT.
The projected 2020 record yield is 3.3 percent more than 2019’s output of 18.81 million MT and breaks the previous production record of 19.27 million MT attained in 2017.
The DA attributed this to the Rice Tariffication Law particularly from the annual P10 billion Rice Competitiveness Fund including the regular rice program and rice resiliency project.
