Agricultural output likely flat in Q1
2 min read
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION was likely flat in the first quarter, even as the livestock and poultry subsectors are expected to have performed well, analysts said.
“I have no great expectations. I think we will still be flat. The luckiest thing that can happen is that there will be some growth but minimal,” Elias Jose “Bong” M. Inciong, president of the United Broiler Raisers Association, said in a phone interview.
“It would be more or less the same as the first quarter of last year. Based on the breeders in place, the greater production should be during the second quarter,” he added.
Farm output contracted by 0.3% in the first quarter of 2022.
“I think it will be somewhat flat. It will be difficult to get towards a percent growth, but this will be about 0-1%, perhaps within that range,” Danilo V. Fausto, president of the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food, Inc., said by phone.
“We will be able to achieve growth for the entire agricultural sector because the livestock sector will pull up the growth,” he added.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is scheduled to release first-quarter farm data on May 10.
Agricultural production shrank by 0.1% in 2022, marking the third straight year of contraction, as crop and fishery output declined.
Data from the PSA showed the full-year value of production in agriculture and fisheries declined slower than the 1.7% contraction in 2021.
It also missed the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) 1.2%-1.5% full-year growth target.
Farm output declined by 1% in the fourth quarter of 2022, reversing a 0.5% growth a year earlier and 1.6% growth in the third quarter of 2022.
Only the livestock and poultry subsectors posted increases in agriculture production in the fourth quarter, growing by 2.5% and 1.9%, respectively.
The DA sees agricultural output growing by 2.5% this year.
Data from the National Livestock Program showed the domestic production of chicken is expected to hit 2.08 million metric tons (MT)…
BusinessWorld
2023-05-04 12:34:32
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