Despite the reduction in production cost, Filipino corn farmers earned less last year as farm-gate prices fell to a 3-year low, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
In its latest report, the PSA said the net-profit cost ratio, which refers to the amount of income that a farmer earns for every peso they invest, fell to an 8-year low of 0.57 from 0.67 in 2019. This means that planters earned P0.57 for every peso they spent to produce corn.
“Net profit-cost ratio was biggest in Mimaropa region at 1.94 while the least was recorded in Cagayan Valley at 0.03,” the PSA said in its report published recently.
PSA data showed that farmers’ net returns per hectare of corn last year declined by 15.25 percent to a 4-year low of P14,336 from P16,950 in 2019.
“Net earnings in the Mimaropa region topped at P38,357 per hectare. Meanwhile, Zamboanga Peninsula netted the least at P568 per hectare.”
The average farm-gate price for all corn (combined yellow and white) declined by almost 7 percent year-on-year to P12.4 per kilograms, the lowest in three years.
PSA data also showed that the total cost of producing corn declined to P25,090 per hectare from P25,252 per hectare in 2019.
“Across regions, Cagayan Valley had the biggest production cost in 2020 at an average of P51,014 per hectare. The least was recorded in Zamboanga Peninsula at P16,196 per hectare.”
PSA data indicated that the average cost to produce a kilogram of corn declined to P7.89 from P7.96 in 2019.
“On the average, production cost per kilogram of corn was highest in Cagayan Valley at P11.75. Mimaropa region had the lowest at P4.97.”
For yellow corn alone, the average net returns per hectare declined by 30 percent year-on-year to P6,703, the lowest in 15 years, according to the PSA.
Furthermore, the net profit-cost ratio for yellow corn plunged to 0.15, the lowest since 2002, based on historical PSA data.
The total cost of producing yellow corn fell to P44,319 per hectare in 2020 from P44,719 in 2019. PSA data also showed that the average cost of producing a kilogram of yellow corn reached P10.61 last year.
The PSA reported in August that the value of corn production in January to June rose by 6 percent to P54.461 billion, from last year’s P50.388 billion.