Lower palay harvest seen in Q3
Local palay or unmilled rice production is projected to decrease by 15 percent in the third quarter due to a drop in harvest area, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) forecasts a 15% decrease in lower palay or unmilled rice production for Q3, due to a reduction in harvest area. Projected palay harvest for July to September is 3.19 million metric tons (MT), down from 3.75 million MT last year. This is also 2.2% lower than the previously estimated 3.26 million MT.
The decrease in harvest area has been estimated at 15.8% to 771,790 hectares, down from 916,770 hectares in last year's actual harvest. Yield per hectare may marginally increase to 4.13 MT from 4.09 MT per hectare. As of Aug. 1, around 113,790 hectares or 14.7% of the updated harvest area has been harvested, resulting in an output of 455,250 MT.
Of the 1.55 million hectares of standing palay, 60.1% are in the vegetative stage, 26.1% in the reproductive stage and 13.8% in the maturing stage.
Similarly, the country's corn production is expected to decline to 2.08 million MT (down 14.4% from 2.43 million MT last year) in Q3, with the harvest area projected to drop to 688,030 hectares, 12.8% lower than last year's 789,240 hectares. Yield per hectare may also decline to 3.02 MT per hectare, a 1.6% decrease from 3.07 MT per hectare in the same period last year.
As of Aug. 1, about 129,950 hectares of corn area have been harvested, representing approximately 18.9% of the 688,030 hectares of standing corn. This translates to around 366,790 MT of corn production. Of the unharvested corn, 39.2% are in the reproductive stage, 31.2% in the maturing stage, and 29.6% in the vegetative stage.
Written by urgent.news from Philippine Star Business's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
