Good weather aided industrial crops in Q2

MANILA  -Favorable weather conditions bode well for the production of some nonfood and industrial crops in the second quarter of this year, which helped mitigate local inflation, according to the latest government data and private forecasts.

In a report, the Philippine Statistics Authority said the output of coconut, coffee, tobacco and cacao increased during the reference period while that of abaca, rubber and sugarcane declined.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said although better weather conditions beefed up local production, farmers might have earned less as they spent more money cultivating the crops.

“This is offset by higher cost of inputs due to higher prices or inflation since 2022 that could have reduced the profit margins or incomes of producers or farmers,” he said.

“Risk of losses due to higher input costs could have also discouraged some planting activities,” Ricafort added.

Cacao posted the largest increase as production improved by 4.1 percent to 2,347.51 metric tons from 2,255.07 MT year-on-year.

Davao Region is the leading cacao producer with a share of 71.2 percent and Zamboanga Peninsula was a distant second with 6.6 percent.

Area planted with cacao was pegged at 32,241.67 hectares, up by 1.5 percent.

Tobacco output rose by 1.9 percent to 37,054.66 MT from 36,378.50 MT. Of these, Burley was the most produced variety, accounting for 43.8 percent, while Virginia came in second with 40.8 percent.

Ilocos Norte is the top tobacco producer with 66.4 percent. Cagayan Valley took the second spot with 31.3 percent. INQ