Farm gate price of palay eases in September–PSA

Palay or unmilled rice prices at the farm gate eased in September after surging in August and pushing the cost of milled rice sold in markets, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. imposed a price ceiling of P41 per kilo for regular-milled rice and P45 a kilo for well-milled rice starting September 5 to ease inflationary pressure and buy time to go after smuggler and hoarders. The price cap was lifted earlier this month, with supply improving as harvest started in September.

Data showed the national average farm gate prices of rice declined  10.2 percent to P19.90 a kilo in September from P22.16 a kilo in August, with the cost of the grain in all but three of the 16 administrative regions falling some by double digits. Palay prices in September only rose in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Ilocos region, and Eastern Visayas.

In September 2022, a kilo of palay was recorded at P17.06.

The sharpest fall in palay prices was observed in Central Luzon, with the average price per kilo sliding to P20.96 in September from P27.54 in August. Farm gate prices of palay remained above P20 a kilo in Northern Luzon, Central Visayas and most of Mindanao in September.

It takes around two kilos of palay to produce a kilo of milled rice.

For the third quarter, the national average farm gate price of palay stood at P20.48 per kilo, up from P19.03 in the second quarter and  P17.51.