"It all boils down to good weather conditions, along with the fact that farmers are raring to plant more and expand the hectarage planted to rice. So far, harvest was good given a good headstart in the first quarter," said Agriculture Assistant Secretary and Bureau of Agricultural Statistics Director Romeo Recide.
The La Niña rains during the summer months boosted efforts to increase rice production with the January to September palay harvest projected to reach an all-time high of about 9.6 million MT, the highest projection in five years.
This favorable factor also prompted the National Food Authority to complete its rice importations for the year at 1.65 million MT, lower than the original projection of 1.8 million MT.
Recide noted that rice production in the first quarter at 3.6 million MT was seven percent higher than of the same period in 2005, while the second quarter yield is projected to hit 2.9 million MT, 9.6 percent higher than the 2.8 million MT in the previous year.
In the third quarter, production is projected at 3.096 million MT,
Earlier, National Fod Authority administrator Gregorio Tan Jr. said that aside from an abundance of rainfall more farmers are shifting to hybrid rice and as a result, are harvesting more palay, while others expanded their hectarage to take advantage of the rainfall.
The higher yields will reduce the country’s costly rice imports.
To date, a total of 1.495 million MT has been contracted to come in by August, of which 1.43 million MT will come from Vietnam and Thailand, 65,000 MT from the US Public Law 480 commodity grant and 132, 000 MT from countries that supported the Philippines‚ bid under the World Trade Organization to maintain quantitative restrictions on rice. Another 100,000 MT could come from re-orders from Thailand and Vietnam suppliers which earlier won contracts to supply rice to the Philippines.
NFA wants to bring in all of the volume required as early as possible so that it can bring in the commodity when prices are still relatively stable.
Tan said NFA does not want to get caught in a situation when fuel prices soar steadily alongside tight supply as major suppliers like Thailand are positioning to secure their domestic supply. A major buyer, China is also seen to further hike up prices when it pushes through with plans to import its requirements by the second semester this year.
Last year, the cost of rice importations by the NFA went up significantly $280-$290 per MT, from the 2004 average of $250 to $260 per MT NFA’s 2004-2005 rice imports were estimated to cost P28 to P29 billion.