MANILA -- President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. welcomed today a report on the impressive growth in rice production for the first 6 months of the year.

In a meeting in Malacañang with the Economic Development Group, Department of Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban cited a Philippine Statistics Authority report that confirmed that palay output from January to June 2023 rose to 9 million metric tons, from 8.7 MMT produced for the same period last year and in 2021.

The figure is even higher than what the Department of Agriculture earlier projected.

The President said a 3%-growth in production over the same period in 2022 is “excellent news”.

The President also said the higher production figure is a big boost to the country’s rice supply which is sufficient until the end of the year even with the impact of super typhoon Egay.

The PSA report is also higher than the PRISM (Philippine Rice Information System) estimate of 8.7 MMT(300,000 MT more) which the DA earlier used in its rice supply outlook.

Agriculture Undersecretary for Rice Industry Development Leocadio Sebastian, for his part, said the 9.0 MMT palay is equivalent to 5.9 MMT milled rice (200.000 MT more than the PRISM estimate of 5.7MMT), adding that 9MMT palay production for the first half of 2023 is also higher than the production levels for the first half output of 2022 and 2021.

With the 3% production growth in the 1st Semester, we can expect that, barring the occurrence of destructive typhoons, the production for 2023 could surpass 20 MMT, Sebastian declared. 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 recent production reports affirm that the country’s current supply outlook for rice (carryover, production, imports) negates speculations of rice supply shortage.

As reported by the private sector to President Marcos on Tuesday, more imported rice is arriving this month and September. In a special meeting, the private sector rice stakeholders also informed President Marcos that 300,000 metric tons of rice are coming in August.

Since January this year until the first week of August, 2.05 MMT of imported rice have already arrived in the country. (PND)