The farm gate price of a kilo of palay continued to rise in January, according to data released Wednesday by the Philippine Statistics Authority, which is a boon for farmers but a bane for rice consumers.
As a rule of thumb, two kilos of palay are needed to produce a kilo of rice. This means that milled rice in the market, given other post-harvest costs and traders margins, will at least sell for twice the farm gate price.
PSA data showed the national average farm gate price of palay was P25.08 per kilo, up 41 percent from the P17.74 per kilo price in January 2023 and up 9.6 percent from the P22.89 a kilo posted in December.
Farm gate price of palay was up in all 16 regions in January, with the lowest increase of 3.3 percent year-on-year recorded in Eastern Visayas and the highest annual increase of 58 percent shown in the Bicol Region.
Higher price of rice has tempered the deceleration of inflation, which in January eased 2.8 percent, its slowest pace in October 2020. PSA and Department of Agriculture officials have warned that rice prices will continue to remain elevated possibly through July because of El Nino and India’s ban on export of non-basmati rice that have driven demand for the grain both here and abroad.
