Despite El Niño adversely affecting the crops in the country, bigger local palay production is seen as more lands were planted this year, according to a farmers' group.

"This year, the [area] planted is bigger. If we can see, in spite of El Niño, our production is close to last year because our area is bigger and our production is getting a little better," said Rosendo So, president of Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura, in a radio interview.

According to him, yield per hectare currently reaches 4.2 metric tons (MT), which he said is a big improvement compared to earlier harvests.

He added that the country's palay production per hectare is higher than Taiwan's.

"Our production is bigger. But of course, their area is wider, that's why they can export. Here we have 3 million hectares; they reach 10 million hectares. But in terms of production, our production per hectare is bigger compared to them," So said.

The SINAG leader said that compared to world market prices, palay prices worldwide are almost identical.

"If we can see the world market price of rice in their area, the purchase of traders there in their area is also high. The price of rice in Thailand reaches 22.50," he said.

"[The prices] are not far from each other. Just now, because the NFA [National Food Authority] bought rice for P30, the price stayed put. The farmgate price [of palay] reached P26 to P27."

USDA projection not new

The latest report by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows that the Philippines is again seen as the largest rice importer worldwide for 2025, with an anticipated 4.2 million MT of rice import volume.

According to So, this estimation is not new as the Philippines in the past years already been among the leading top rice importers globally.

"For the past years, we were number one and two. That's not an issue anymore. The important thing is that we have local stocks," he said.

He, however, noted that the USDA projections are not accurate.

"Like last year, their estimate is that we will import 3.8 million metric tons, but we only reached 3.6 [million metric tons]," he said.

"This year, their projection is 4.1 million MT, and our projection is 3.8 million MT. There really is a difference in the estimation," he added.

Moreover, So said that rice importations are seen as not a threat to Filipino farmers, as tariffs collected from them under the Rice Traffication Law are given to them.

"At first, in 2019, that's what happened that scared the farmers a little. But right now, because the tariff collected goes to the farmers, like last year, the tariff collected was P30 billion, so this year, that should be given to the farmers," he said.

"The import, if there is a tariff collected and it goes to the farmer, is a big deal. We will see the balance. What will happen is that more farmers will plant rice in the country," he added.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) recently reported that damage to crops incurred by the country due to El Niño has reached P6.35 billion.

The volume losses from the affected agricultural areas are estimated at 134,828 MT for palay, 105,896 MT for corn, 28,956 MT for high-value crops, and 140 MT for cassava, totaling 269,416 MT.