THE average farmgate price of dry palay (unmilled rice) rose 6.5% month on month to a national average of P16.92 per kilo in November, the Philippine Statistics Authority said in a preliminary report.
On a year-on-year basis, the farmgate price fell 16.6%, with the rate of decline easing from the 22.7% year-on-year fall in October.
The highest palay prices in November were posted in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao at P20.36 per kilo, the only region to register a price above P20.
The lowest palay price average in November was logged in Calabarzon at P13.25 per kilo, compared with P17.38 a year earlier and P12.26 a month earlier.
In Central Luzon, the country’s top producing region, the average farmgate price of palay in November was P18.14 per kilo, down from P21.06 a year earlier but higher than the month-earlier P15.14.
Cagayan Valley, another major producer, posted an average farmgate price of P16.37 per kilo, down from P19.76 a year earlier but up from P15.36 a month prior.
Raul Q. Montemayor, national manager of the Federation of Free Farmers, told BusinessWorld via Viber that palay prices are still “comparatively low” even with the import freeze.
“Farmers continued to suffer from comparatively low prices for their palay,” he said.
Mr. Montemayor, however, said the import freeze may have contributed to arresting the oversupply of rice.
“What the ban may have done was to reduce the supply glut in the market,” he said.
However, Mr. Montemayor said, given the end of the September-November harvest, any further improvement in palay prices will only benefit traders.
“By this time, almost all of the palay is already in the hands of traders and they will be the ones, not the farmers, who will benefit from any upward movement in palay and consequently rice prices,” he said. — Vonn Andrei E. Villamiel