The average farmgate price of dry palay, or unmilled rice, in the country increased by 29 percent to over ₱23 per kilo in April compared to a year ago, at a time when the country is increasing imports of the household staple to offset weaker production.

Preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the national average price for dry palay swelled to ₱23.31 per kilo in April from ₱18.04 per kilo in the same month last year.

The PSA said the highest farmgate price in the reference month was recorded in Region 10, or Northern Mindanao, at ₱26.13 per kilo, an increase of 37.3 percent from ₱19.03 per kilo in the previous year.

The lowest average price was observed in Region 4B, or Mimaropa, at ₱20.60 per kilo, although this still represents an improvement of nearly 15 percent from last year’s price of ₱17.95 per kilo.

Farmgate prices refer to the prices that farmers receive for the sale of their produce at the first point of sale, net of the total marketing costs paid by the farmers, according to the PSA.

While each rice-producing region registered growth compared to the previous year, the opposite was the case for nearly every region in the country on a month-on-month basis.

The average nationwide farmgate price of ₱23.31 per kilo in April was down 2.2 percent from the ₱23.83 per kilo recorded in March.

The decline coincides with the subpar palay production in the first three months of the year, which fell to a six-year low of 4.40 million metric tons (MT), compared to 4.70 million MT in the same period last year.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) earlier attributed the drop to the impact of adverse weather conditions in the latter half of last year, on top of lower farmgate prices of palay, which discouraged farmers from planting the key commodity.

Local rice production is expected to further decline this year as elevated fertilizer prices due to the ongoing Middle East conflict and the threat of an extreme El Niño weigh on planting intentions.

Data from the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) showed that rice imports already increased by 18 percent to 1.68 million MT in the first three months of the year amid efforts to augment the country’s rice supply.

Even with this increase, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel stressed that importation remains a “last-resort tool” for the government when “supply truly fails, prices spiral, and consumers are at risk.”

“We will not normalize imports,” he said in a statement. “Our priority is simple: strengthen local agriculture first, and import only when absolutely unavoidable.”

Meanwhile, Tiu Laurel said the DA is prepared to enforce Executive Order (EO) No. 118, which imposes a ₱50-per-kilo price ceiling on five-percent broken imported rice, once it officially takes effect.

He said the measure is intended as a calibrated response to extraordinary market volatility while the government continues efforts to strengthen domestic rice production and curb speculative pricing.