THE country’s palay output in the third quarter rose to 3.75 million metric tons (MMT) on the back of expanded harvest area, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported.
Data gathered by the PSA indicate that palay output in July to September increased by 12.6 percent from the 3.33 MMT posted in the same period last year.
The production of irrigated farms grew by 7.15 percent, reaching 2.79 MMT from the previous year’s 2.6 MMT.
Rainfed farms produced 958,322 metric tons (MT), 32.17 percent higher than the 725,064 MT recorded in 2024.
In addition, PSA data indicated the expansion in area harvested to 916,772 hectares buoyed the production during the lean months.
The area harvested increased by 15.7 percent from 792,221 hectares in the same period last year.
Within target
THE country has lost nearly 480,000 MT of palay supply so far this year after weather-related shocks, particularly typhoons, ravaged plantations.
Since January, the local rice sector has incurred 479,813 MT of palay losses as of October 22, based on the latest damage reports of the Department of Agriculture (DA).
The latest figures, however, were yet to breach the average annual palay output losses ranging from 500,000 MT to 600,000 MT, according to agriculture officials.
‘If you look at these losses incurred by the rice industry, it’s a mix of both partially and totally damaged crops,’ DA Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa had told the BusinessMirror.
‘The partially damaged areas have a chance of recovery, meaning some of them can be harvested while others cannot.’
As such, the DA official assured the industry that palay output this year would not dip below the 2024 level, when it reached 19.09 MMT, the lowest in four years.
De Mesa also said the agency remains optimistic that the country could reach its revised target of 20.3 MMT palay output in 2025, citing ‘improvements’ in the third quarter harvest.
Scale back
THE department had scaled back its palay output forecast this year to 20.3 MMT owing to torrential downpours, which is lower than its initial projection of 20.45 MMT.
It added that erratic weather patterns could further lower expected paddy rice output in 2025 to as low as 20.09 MMT. If realized, the projected range would still be higher than the record 20.06 MMT in 2023.
In the first semester of the year, the country’s palay harvest hit an all-time high of 9.077 MMT, indicating a 6.41 percent growth from the 8.53 MMT posted in the same period last year.
The last time unmilled rice production breached the 9-MMT mark in the first half of the year was in 2023, when it reached 9.026 MMT.
Historically, the second half of the year accounts for over 55 percent of total rice production.