The Philippines may have hit a forecast 3.57 million tonnes unmilled rice harvest in the second quarter based on preliminary data, putting it on course to meet a target of a record full-year output of 17.46 million tonnes, a farm official said on Tuesday.
Good weather and government support via improved irrigation would lift output this year, allowing the country to achieve a target growth in output of 10 percent in 2011, Maura Lizarondo, assistant director at the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS), told Reuters. "Our initial data showed palay (paddy rice) output in the second quarter was very close to the April forecast," Lizarondo said in a phone interview.
Based on the BAS' forecast in April, rice output in the June quarter was expected to rise 14.2 percent from a year earlier. Production in January to June was projected to grow nearly 15 percent to 7.61 million tonnes. The data will be reviewed in the next couple of weeks, before the final second quarter farm output report is released on August 15 along with its forecast for second half grains production.
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