Despite the El Niño episode adversely affecting crop production, a bigger palay harvest is seen as more land was planted this year, according to a farmers’ group.

“This year, the [area] planted was bigger. We can see, despite El Niño, our production is close to last year’s because our area is bigger and our production is getting a little better,” Rosendo So, president of Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura, said 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 noted the country’s palay production per hectare is bigger than Taiwan’s.

“Our production is bigger. But of course, their area is wider; that’s why they can export. Here we have three million hectares; they reach 10 million hectares. But in terms of production, our production per hectare is bigger compared to theirs,” 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 is also high. The price of rice in Thailand reaches P22.50,” 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 is 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 was already 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, they estimate 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 is a difference in the estimations,” he added.