MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Agriculture (DA) Thursday assured the country of a sufficient rice supply in the coming months, saying initial summer harvests had already hit 6 million metric tons as of May 5.

The DA-Rice Action Center said the agency had inched closer to its target palay production of 7.1 million MT for the first semester, higher than the 6.7 million MT recorded in the same period last year.

The harvest came from 77 percent of the 1.87 million hectares of land planted to palay, the DA-RAC said in a report to Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap. The summer harvest season usually extends up to June.

Highest yield in Cagayan

Agriculture Undersecretary Jesus Emmanuel Paras, who heads DA-RAC, said the Cagayan Valley region had posted the highest palay yield so far with 1.177 million MT, followed by Central Luzon with 678,107 MT, and Western Visayas, 652,282 MT.

Paras reported that production in Eastern Visayas had reached 534,461 MT; Central Mindanao, 456,220 MT; Ilocos provinces, 339,182 MT; Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, 333,122 MT; Zamboanga Region, 261,142 MT; Bicol, 252,167 MT, and Caraga Region, 245,119 MT.

In the Mimaropa provinces (Mindoro Oriental and Occidental, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan), production reached 213,805 MT, Paras said.

In Northern Mindanao, the yield reached 190,901 MT; Davao Region, 183,217 MT; Calabarzon, 161,170 MT; Central Visayas, 143,879 MT, and the Cordillera Administrative Region, 70,998 MT, the official added.

‘Critical’ rice volume gap

On top of the buffer harvests in the dry season, agriculture officials also expect rice imports to be completed before the onset of the traditional lean months from July to September.

As of the end of April, the Philippines, the world’s biggest rice importer, had contracted 1.713 million MT from Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan and the United States, out of the 2.1 million MT it had sought to buy.

The contracted volume would be enough to fill the “critical” rice volume shortfall of 1.6 million-1.7 million MT, Yap earlier said. Of this volume, some 700,000 MT have already arrived in the country.

Yap said the country would continue to aggressively buy rice in the international market in preparation for the typhoon season, but would do so confidentially so as not to destabilize world prices.

Even with a projected 10 million MT palay production in the wet season, Yap cited the need to stock up in view of the typhoons that frequently ravage rice paddies and diminish local supplies. About 20 typhoons hit the country each year.

“We must still have an eye for the worst possible case that can happen, that’s why we must continue having a 30-day buffer stock,” Yap earlier said.