DA Expects Production to Be Up by 2.5% For 2023

The Department of Agriculture has stated that it predicts the country’s agricultural production to grow by 2.5% in 2023.

Agriculture Undersecretary Mercidita A. Sombilla has mentioned that growth for the agriculture sector in 2023 will be faster in comparison to 2022.

“Hopefully we will be at 1.2% growth, so far we are expecting around 1.2% to 1.5% for this year. For 2023, our goal is 2.3% to 2.5%,”  mentioned Undersecretary Sombilla.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, the production value of the agriculture and fisheries sector grew in Q3 by 1.8% with increased growth in poultry, livestock, and crop sectors which offsets the decrease in fisheries output.

The growth in Q3 was a reversal of the 0.6% contraction in Q2 and the 2.6% decline in the same quarter of 2021.

For the period of January to September, the value of agricultural production rose by 0.3%, which reverses the decline of 2.5% last 2021.

“I think the fourth quarter will give us a positive outlook,”  Undersecretary Sombilla says amid the challenges presented by the poultry, livestock, and crops industries.

Undersecretary Sombilla has mentioned that she does not predict any shortages of agricultural commodities for 2023.

“We don’t have any shortage of rice, low beginning stocks, yes. We suffered losses because of back-to-back typhoons but we don’t have shortage of supply,”

This year, a number of typhoons had made huge agricultural damages in affected areas, which caused supply shortages for the year and spikes in agricultural goods in the past months.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo F. Panganiban has mentioned that the supply of onions will be adequate for 2023 as local produce will benter the market beginning in January and February.

Source: Business World