Prices of agricultural products up in Q1

MANILA, Philippines — The prices of agricultural products sold by farmers and fisherfolks increased in the first quarter, mainly driven by the livestock and poultry sectors.

Latest figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the Producer Price Index (PPI) for agriculture further grew to 8.2 percent in January to March from 4.1 percent in the previous quarter.

The increase in the PPI for agriculture in the quarter was mainly driven by increments in the livestock and poultry sector as its PPI soared to 23.7 percent.

This is higher than the 20.6 percent growth in the previous quarter and is also a turnaround from the 2.2 percent decline registered in the first quarter of last year.

“A higher double-digit annual increment of 44.5 percent was recorded in the index of livestock during the quarter,” the PSA said.

Similarly, the index of poultry also posted a double-digit annual growth of 12.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the PSA reported that the PPI for crops also grew at a faster rate of 8.9 percent in the first quarter compared to its 2.2 percent growth in the previous quarter.

The increase was attributed to annual hikes in the indexes of condiments, leaf vegetables, fruits and commercial crops.

In contrast, the PPI for fishery continued to move downward as it fell 16 percent.

This is a larger decline compared to its 8.1 percent drop in the previous quarter.

“The indexes of the commodity groups such as commercial fishery, inland municipal fishery, and marine municipal fishery exhibited faster annual decreases during the quarter,” the PSA said.

However, the index of aquaculture posted a slower decline of 5.2 percent compared to the 5.9 percent decrease in the previous quarter.

The PPI for Agriculture measures the average change over time of prices received by farmers/livestock and poultry raisers/ fisherfolks for the sale of their agricultural products relative to a base year.