The Department of Agriculture (DA) said the estimated palay production in the first three months this year is seen growing 1.1 percent to 4.78 million metric tons despite the threat of El Niño.
“There seems an incremental increase in production. Based on the estimates of PhilRice (Philippine Rice Research Institute) and PRISM (Philippine Rice Information System) program, this matches with the projected 4.7 million MT palay production for the first quarter of the year,” said Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public forum on Thursday.
Tiu Laurel said this boosted optimism rice imports this year should not hit the forecast 4 million MT to 2023’s 3.5 million MT and 2022’s 3.8 million MT.
“Of course, the second quarter might be affected because this is the height of El Niño,” Tiu Laurel said. Past that, he projected harvests to turn out okay and that should La Niña also occur, its impact similarly not significant,
He acknowledged difficulty in projecting rice prices in the coming months but expressed optimism for prices to remain generally where it is at present and begin to drop in “maybe June or July this year.”
In the National Capital Region, the price of local well-milled rice ranges from P48 to P58 per kilo and regular milled rice from P48 to P53 per kilo.
Imported well milled rice range from P51 to P54 per kilo while imported regular milled rice range from P48 to P51 per kilo.
Imported special variety rice price ranges from P57 to P65 per kilo while premium rice ranges from P52 to P63 per kilo.
Domestically grown special variety rice costs from P56 to P66 per kilo and premium rice from P50 to P61 per kilo.
