The Department of Agriculture (DA) said agricultural production in the fourth quarter is seen buoyant.
At the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing Monday, Arnel de Mesa, DA assistant secretary for operations, said the outlook is based on the relative absence of calamities affecting production output during the period.
“Based on data we are seeing, growth is possible since we didn’t have a major calamity and not much typhoon as well. Crops production is also good. We also expect continued growth of the livestock and poultry sub-sectors and, hopefully, fisheries can recover as well as its decline in the third quarter was quite substantial,” de Mesa said.
The Philippine Statistics Authority is set to release sometime next month data on agricultural production on both the fourth-quarter and full 2023 performance.
Agriculture production value dropped 0.3 percent in the third quarter this year as the crops and fisheries sub-sector pulled down overall performance.
But in the first nine months, the value of production in agriculture and fisheries posted a 0.2 percent increase.
The fisheries sub-sector in the first nine months this year posted a 6.1 percent decline in the value of production at constant 2018 prices, equivalent to a 7 percent contraction.
In the third quarter alone, the crops sub-sector posted a 0.4 percent decline but was up 0.9 percent in the first nine months.
The poultry sub-sector posted the biggest increase in the third quarter equivalent to a growth of 2.9 percent. Value of production in the January to September period grew 2.5 percent.
As for the livestock sub-sector, the segment enjoyed a 2.5 percent increase in the third quarter alongside a 2.4 percent growth in the first three quarters of the year.
