Price index for farm products up 24.7% in Q4

PRICES of agricultural products rose 24.7% year on year in the fourth quarter led by the crops and fisheries sub-indices, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.

The fourth quarter rate represented a major acceleration from the 7.8% reported a year earlier.

The third quarter growth rate was 15.2%. The 2022 growth rate came in at 14.7%.

The agriculture producer price index (PPI) “measures the changes in the average prices received by farmers for their produce relative to a base period,” the PSA said. The base year used in the report was 2018.

Outside the National Capital Region, the Cordillera Administrative Region posted the highest growth rate for agriculture PPI at 64.3%.

The Davao Region had the lowest increment at 1.5%.

The crops sub-index rose 32.3% during the fourth quarter from 16.4% reported a quarter earlier.

Cereals and root crop prices rose 9% and 18.1%, respectively. Fruits posted price growth of 3.9% while commercial crop prices rose 60.4%.

The PSA said the growth rate for fisheries was 5.4%, accelerating from the 5.3% posted a quarter earlier led by price growth in aquaculture products and commercial fishes of 5.6% and 12.3%, respectively.

Marine municipal fisheries products posted a year-on-year price decline of 2.8%.

During the fourth quarter, year-on-year price growth in livestock and poultry products slowed to 8.7% from 17.5% a quarter earlier. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera