The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that rice and corn production is expected to decrease in the third quarter of this year.
As of May, palay or rice production is estimated to drop by 8.4 percent to 3.89 million metric tons between April and June from 4.25 million MT in the same period of 2023.
It is also lower by 0.4 percent than the previous estimates of 3.91 million MT in April.
The PSA said the area planted for rice may decrease by 7.1 percent to 892.40 million hectares, while yield per hectare may also drop by 1.4 percent percent to 4.39 metric tons.
It added that over 568,030 hectares or 63.7 percent of the updated standing crop has been harvested, which translated to palay output of 2.54 million MT.
Of the area remaining to be harvested, 38.6 percent were at the reproductive stage and 61.4 percent were at the maturing stage.
As of June 13, locally well-milled rice averages P48 to P55 per kilogram, while milled rice ranges from approximately P45 to P52 per kilogram, based on the price list of the Department of Agriculture.
The estimates for corn production were also lower by 19.1 percent to 1.19 million MT from the 1.47 million MT in the third quarter of last year. This is also down by 0.6 percent from the previous estimates of 1.20 million MT.
Area planted to corn during the period is estimated to have shrunk to 15 percent year on year to 347.70 thousand hectares.
The yield per hectare of corn is also seen to decline its year-earlier estimate to 3.43 metric tons or 4.7 percent from 3.60 metric tons in the same period last year.
Of the 347,700 hectares area, about 183,090 hectares or 52.7 percent of the updated standing crop has been harvested, which means 664,340 MT of corn output was recorded.
About 2.9 percent of the remaining corn crop was at the vegetative stage, 34.1 percent at the reproductive stage, and 63 percent at the maturing stage.