Manila, May 18 - Philippine unmilled rice output is forecast to rise 2.35 percent to 3.55 million tonnes in the third quarter as farmers in the world's biggest rice importer expect more rains and plant more areas, the government said on Monday.
That should bring output of the country's main crop to 10.92 million tonnes for the first nine months of 2009, up 3.16 percent from a year earlier, the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics said on its website.
"The positive outlook may be attributed to farmers' anticipation of the early onset of rainfall and expected early plantings in irrigated areas due to early release of irrigation water and restoration and rehabilitation of some irrigation facilities," the agency said in its latest crop estimate.
The monsoon season in the Philippines, which usually starts late in May, began early and the government said earlier this month that more than 1 percent of projected second-quarter rice harvest was destroyed by a recent tropical storm, already the fourth to hit the country this year.
Corn output is forecast to increase 2.27 percent to 2.31 million tonnes in July-September, which should push nine-month production to 5.52 million tonnes, down 0.53 percent from a year ago, the agency said.
A more than 3 percent fall in corn production in the first quarter caused Philippine total farm output to grow a slower 2.02 percent during the period compared with 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Slower harvesting, partly due to excessive rains, has pushed the country's feed industry to import nearly 311,000 tonnes of yellow corn so far this year, compared with nil in 2008.
But the Philippines remains the world's largest importer of rice, with government officials saying total purchases may reach up to 2 million tonnes this year, including the 1.5 million tonnes contracted with Vietnam earlier, compared with a record 2.3 million tonnes in 2008.