No big movements in agri prices after Luis, Maymay, Habagat —DA

The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Wednesday said that there are no major price movements in agricultural goods after the country experienced days of bad weather.

Speaking on the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon program, DA spokesperson Arnel de Mesa said that the loss of produce was at around 4,500 metric tons compared to the annual production of 20 million metric tons.

“Dahil po diyan, wala po tayong inaasahan na paggalaw sa presyo ng ating agricultural commodities, lalo na yung sa bigas. Sa gulay po, pwede mayroong maliit ng paggalaw dahil naapektuhan ang ating mga lowland vegetables dito sa Central Luzon at Southern Tagalog, pero mabilis naman maka-recover ang ating gulayan,” De Mesa said.

(Because of that, we do not expect much price movement in agricultural commodities, especially in rice. For vegetables, there may be a small movement because the lowland vegetables were affected in Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog, but the vegetables are quick to recover.)

De Mesa said the agricultural damage from the different weather systems has resulted in P197 million worth of damage.

This is mostly concentrated in rice harvests at P143 million, vegetables at P30 million, and P15.8 million in irrigation.

De Mesa said that production could be recovered because of the 6,700 hectares of land damaged; 5,700 hectares were only partially damaged. —VAL, GMA News