Prices of agricultural goods fall in Q1

MANILA, Philippines — Prices of agricultural products sold by farmers and fisherfolks decelerated in the first quarter of the year due to slower growth in crops, livestock and poultry.

Latest figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the Producer Price Index (PPI) for agriculture dropped to 4.7 percent in January to March, from 7.1 percent in the same period last year.

The PPI for crops slowed down to 5.6 percent  from 6.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021.

“Lower annual increase was registered in the index of cereals at 7.9 percent, from 11.6 percent in the previous quarter,” the PSA said.

The annual growth rates also went down in the indexes of root crops,bean and legumes, condiments, fruit vegetables, leafy vegetables, and fruits.

In contrast, the index of commercial crops increased from 11.4 percent to  12.6 percent.

The  PPI for livestock and poultry further decreased to 5.4 percent from 13.1 percent in the previous quarter.

“Lower annual hikes during the quarter were recorded in the indexes of livestock at 6.7 percent; and poultry, 2.9 percent,”the PSA said.

Meanwhile, PPI for fishery declined by 1.7 percent in the first quarter from an increment of 3.8 percent in the previous quarter.

“The index of aquaculture fishery posted an annual decline of  eight percent  from an annual growth of 1.9 percent.

The index of commercial fishery slowed down to 0.7 percent from nine percent in the previous quarter.

The index of marine municipal fishery also increased by 5.2 percent from an annual growth rate of four percent 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.