THE AVERAGE farmgate price of palay, or unmilled rice, fell 0.5% week on week during the second week of May to P18.35 per kilogram (kg), the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.
The PSA said the average wholesale price of well-milled rice fell 0.1% week on week to P39.51. At retail, it fell 0.3% to P43.16.
The average price of regular-milled rice fell both at wholesale and retail. The wholesale price fell 0.5% week on week to P35.82 during the period. At retail, the price fell 0.6% to P38.74.
The farmgate price of yellow corn grain during the same period fell 1.5% week on week to P14.01 per kg. The average wholesale price rose 0.2% to P20.29 and the retail price fell 0.1% to P24.86.
The average farmgate price of white corn grain rose 0.2% week on week to P16.19. The average wholesale price was unchanged at P22.68, and the average retail price was also stable at P29.12, remaining at that level for five weeks straight.
The price of palay has been under pressure in recent months with the implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law, which liberalized the rules for importing rice. The threat of competition from cheap fopreign rice has made traders reluctant to buy domestic rice, weighing on the buying price of palay, the unprocessed form in which it is sold by farmers. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang
