PRODUCTION

The seasonally adjusted palay production in the first quarter of 2021 was up by 0.5 percent, from 4,892 thousand metric tons in the fourth quarter of 2020. (Table 1)

This quarter’s performance when deseasonalized was higher by 9.0 percent than the output in the same quarter of the previous year. (Figure 1 and Table 1)

PRICES

The seasonally adjusted farmgate price of palay for the first quarter of 2021 was posted at PhP 17.10 per kilogram, a decrease of -7.5 percent from its fourth-quarter 2020 level of PhP 18.49 per kilogram. On the other hand, it increased by 4.4 percent compared with its previous year’s same period farmgate price of PhP 16.38 per kilogram. (Figure 2 and Table 1)

The quarter's deseasonalized wholesale price of rice at PhP 37.55 per kilogram recorded a decrease of -1.4 percent from the preceding quarter’s price of PhP 38.07 per kilogram. Conversely, this quarter’s deseasonalized wholesale price registered an increase of 0.2  percent  compared  with  its  previous  year's  price  quotation  of PhP 37.49 per kilogram. (Figure 3 and Table 2)

In the first quarter of 2021, the seasonally adjusted retail price of rice at PhP 42.14 per kilogram showed an increase of 1.8 percent from the previous quarter’s retail price of PhP 41.40 per kilogram. Similarly, the current quarter’s seasonally adjusted retail price went up by 2.0 percent from the same period in the 2020 record of Php 41.30 per kilogram. (Figure 4 and Table 2)

DENNIS S. MAPA, Ph.D.
Undersecretary
National Statistician and Civil Registrar General