By MADELAINE B. MIRAFLOR

Weeks before 2019 ended, farm-gate prices of palay continues to go down as farmers reached the tail-end of the harvest season.

As of the fifth week of November, the average of farmgate price of palay went down to ₱15.55 per kilogram (/kg) or by 0.1 percent compared to its ₱15.57/kg price in the previous week, the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.

Year-on-year, it fell by 22.3 percent from the priec level of ₱20.01/kg.

As of December, the Philippine government already began distributing the ₱5,000 one-time cash assistance to some farmers as part of the interventions to ease the negative impact of Rice Tariffication Law to local rice production since last March.

To recall, the influx of imported rice in the local market already resulted to billions of losses to Filipino rice farmers.

Meanwhile, the average wholesale price of well milled rice decreased to ₱37.20/kg or by 0.3 percent this week from its previous week’s level of ₱37.39/kg. Similarly, on an annual basis, it dropped further at a rate of 12.3 percent from its level of ₱42.42/kg in the same week of the previous year.

The average retail price of well milled rice, however, went up to ₱41.58/kg or by 0.1 percent compared to previous week’s level of ₱41.56/kg. Compared to last year, it dropped further by 9.5 percent from the price level of ₱45.93/kg.

As for the average wholesale price of regular milled rice, it rose to ₱33.17/kg or by 0.2 percent from the previous week’s level price of ₱33.12/kg. But, it plunged at an annual rate of 15.4 percent from its level of ₱39.21/kg in the same week of the previous year.

The average retail price of regular milled rice meanwhile fell to ₱36.66/kg or by 0.03 percent from it week ago level of ₱36.67/kg. Likewise, it dropped at an annual rate of 13.1 percent from its level of ₱42.16/kg in the same week of the previous year.