The two typhoons and the heavy monsoon rain over Luzon and the rest of the country in the past two weeks will certainly make an impact on the prices of goods and commodities.
The incessant rain and the floods that submerged many rice fields in Bulacan, Pampanga and parts of Pangasinan are an ominous sign that prices of rice, vegetables and other basic crops will increase because of production deficits. Vegetable farms in Benguet province and other producing towns, in particular, were also destroyed by heavy rain.
The damage to roads and bridges will hamper the transportation of crops to Metro Manila and other urban capitals, and unsurprisingly raise the cost of the farm produce.
Bulacan, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Bataan and the rest of Central Luzon are known as the rice bowl of the Philippines. Any damage to rice farms and and a disruption in the transportation infrastructures in this region will cause a spike in the prices of rice, corn and vegetables.
Initial estimates show that Super Typhoon Egay left P1.54 billion in farm damage as of July 30, 2023. Reports from the regional field offices of the Department of Agriculture in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Ilocos provinces, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, Western Visayas and Caraga showed that damage and losses in the agricultural and fishery sector affected the livelihood of 99,272 farmers and fisherfolk.
Among the agricultural commodities that sustained damage were rice, corn, high value crops, livestock and poultry, and fisheries.The damage to crops could increase further as Typhoon Falcon induced heavy monsoon rain in the past few days and flooded more areas in Central Luzon.
The flood and heavy rain over this key agricultural production region will begin to exert upward pressure on the inflation rate, which the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has been trying to rein in for months. The inflation rate in July eased to a 16-month low of 4.7 percent from 5.4 percent in June but the weather disturbances in the latter weeks of the month for sure will manifest their effect on prices in August and the succeeding months.
Timely rice importations and the delivery of commodities from regions that suffered less from the typhoons and heavy rain could ease the pressure on prices. For the most part of the coming months, however, we have to tighten our belt and bear the spike in prices of certain commodities.
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