President and Agriculture Secretary Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Tuesday, Aug. 15, welcomed the three-percent rice production growth of the country from January to June this year, calling it an “excellent news.”

The Chief Executive was referring to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report about the rice output from January to June 2023 that went up to nine million metric tons (MMT), from 8.7 MMT produced for the same period last year and in 2021.

Marcos learned about this from Department of Agriculture (DA) Undersecretary Domingo F. Panganiban during his recent meeting with the Economic Development Group.

According to Marcos, the said figure was even higher than what the Agriculture department earlier projected.

The higher production, he said, was a big boost to the country’s sufficient rice supply until the end of this year even with the impact of Super Typhoon "Egay."

The PSA report also noted it was greater than the PRISM (Philippine Rice Information System) estimate of 8.7 MMT which the DA earlier utilized in its rice supply outlook.

For his part, DA Undersecretary for Rice Industry Development Leocadio Sebastian stated that the nine MMT “palay” was equivalent to 5.9 MMT milled rice.

Such rice production for the first half of 2023, he noted, was also higher than the production levels for the first half output of 2022 and 2021.

“With the three percent production growth in the first semester, we can expect that, barring the occurrence of destructive typhoons, the production for 2023 could surpass 20 MMT,” said Sebastian.

“The country's rice production will continue to grow considering the good palay price in the previous cropping and provision of various interventions by the DA (e.g., seeds, fertilizers, biofertilizers, soil ameliorants, and farm machinery extension support).”

The DA official said the recent production reports affirmed that the country's current supply outlook for rice production and imports negated speculations of rice supply shortage.

Recently, the private sector reported to Marcos that more imported rice will be arriving this month and in September.  

During a special meeting, the private sector rice stakeholders also informed the President that 300,000 metric tons of rice will be coming in August.

It was noted that from January this year until the first week of August, 2.05 MMT of imported rice have already arrived in the country.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by JEL SANTOS

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