MANILA – Successive weather disturbances have driven up the prices of vegetables and fish, contributing to a faster overall inflation rate in August, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said Friday.
The agency issued the statement after inflation rose to 1.5 percent in August from 0.9 percent in July, with food inflation logged at 0.6 percent, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
DA spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa explained that heavy rains disrupted fishing activities and flooded vegetable farms, pushing prices higher.
“Dahil iyon sa sunud-sunod na pag-ulan na nakakaapekto talaga sa presyo ng gulay atsaka isda (That’s because of the consecutive rains which have affected the prices of vegetables and fish),” he said in a phone interview.
In particular, vegetable inflation accelerated to 10 percent in August from 4.7 percent deflation in July, while fish inflation increased to 9.5 percent from 6.3 percent.
“Syempre kapag may bagyo, titigil ‘yung pangingisda. Sa gulay naman, mabilis naman bahain (Of course, when there’s a storm, the fishing is halted. For vegetables, it’s easily flooded),” De Mesa said.
Despite a slight decline, meat prices remain elevated and may face renewed “price pressures” during the “ber” months due to higher demand, along with eggs, De Mesa said.
Filipino consumers, meanwhile, will continue to enjoy stable prices of rice amid the 60-day rice importation halt as the country enters the onset of harvest season, the agriculture official assured.
In August, rice plummeted further at 17 percent deflation from 15.9 percent in July.
“Dahil sa laki ng production sa ibang bansa, especially India, ganun din sa Vietnam, at other ASEAN countries, tayo rin we are expecting a record-harvest, patuloy na ma-expect natin na bababa ang presyo ng bigas (Because of the huge production internationally, especially in India, as well as in Vietnam, and other ASEAN countries, we are also expecting a record-harvest, we can expect a continuous decline in prices of rice) until next year,” de Mesa said.
For the wet harvest season, the DA projected at least 11 million metric tons of palay (unhusked rice) output.
The DA earlier said the Philippines may “easily surpass” last year’s record-palay production at 20.06 million metric tons (MT).
It also maintained optimism to hit the 20.4 million MT target output, considering the historic-high harvest of palay of 9.08 million MT for the first half of 2025.
