Agriculture

BEYOND ELLIPTICALBy Rose Marie de la Cruz THE FUEL crisis triggered by the ongoing war in Iran is definitely affecting the food supply chain and energy programs of the world. Its  negative impact in the Philippines is on food and energy supply which all depend on petrochemicals. Prices of urea—the most used chemical fertilizer in our farms– have skyrocketed to …

DAIRY imports in 2025 declined by 3 percent as a result of 3.388 million metric tons in liquid milk equivalent (MMT-LME) down from 3.5 MMT-LME in 2024 because of better milk production, according to the National Dairy Authority (NDA). This is because the country’s milk production surged to a record-high of 43.3 million liters in 2025, according to the Philippine …

RECEIPTS from coconut-based exports declined by 2.1 percent in February because of  lower revenues from coconut oil—the country’s top farm export, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported.  PSA figures showed the value of coconut-based exports declined to $569.25 million from the previous year’s $581.43 million. Coconut oil accounted for the bulk of shipments at $442.97 million, down by 11.6 percent …

MEAT imports in 2025 gave a record-high of over P22 billion in tariffs and taxes, driven by higher volume as the country continued to depend on foreign supplies to meet its growing animal protein requirement. In a report, the House of Representatives’ Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD) computed the government’s tariff and value added tax (VAT) revenues from …

BEYOND ELLIPTICALBy Rose Marie de la Cruz WITH THE worsening geopolitical tensions in the Middle East affecting the global supply chain and leading to rising oil prices and its byproducts– fertilizers and pesticides– the already dismal performance of agriculture is expected to worsen further. Philippine agriculture has been suffering, but the government planners desperately try to hide the structural causes …

THE Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority, an agency under the Department of Agriculture, has stopped the delivery of 11,000 bags of fertilizers for Oriental and Occidental Mindoro provinces after discovering violations of FPA regulations that could trigger sanctions and possible blacklisting for Agri-Victorious Trading Corp. based in Cagayan. The company secured a contract to supply fertilizer under the DA’s program in …

THE GOVERNMENT’S proposed five-minute X-ray inspection of imported agricultural containers in the first border facilities does not sit well with local pork producers as this might cause the entry of transboundary diseases. The Xray inspections are supposed to begin in 2027. Vice chairman Alfred Ng of the National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. (NatFed) said the Philippine Council for Agriculture …

LIMITED pork importation will be crucial in helping the swine herd recover, as the Department of Agriculture (DA) ramps up hog repopulation efforts. “We will increase our production definitely because the government has a repopulation fund. But if excessive imports remain, farmers will lose because they (will have to sell) below production cost,” Alfred Ng, vice chairman of the National …

BEYOND ELLIPTICALBy Rose Marie de la Cruz THE LAST quarter of 2025, the Department of Agriculture was boasting that a coming  good palay production– arising from less storms and floods that normally destroy the crops–  would assure the country of less imports of the staple. And then, earlier this year I read about DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel talking about …

By Rose de la Cruz OVERFISHING, illegal fishing and other destructive methods by local and foreign fishing  vessels have caused output to decline to its lowest level in over two decades to 3.96 million metric tons in 2025 or by 2.51 percent. Unless the government shows a determined effort to protect the marine resources and shelter small communal fishermen from …