Economic Performance. In 2007, the Philippines recorded a 7.96 percent growth in Gross National Product (GNP). Its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded by 7.19 percent. The Gross Value Added (GVA) in agriculture and fishery increased by 5.01 percent during the year. The sector accounted for about 18.26 percent of the GDP.

Employment and Wages. Of the 36.21 million persons in the labor force in 2007, about 33.56 million or 92.7 percent were employed. Agriculture employed 11.78 million persons or about 35 percent of the total employment. In the first half of 2007, the nominal wage rates for palay and corn farm workers were above the 2000 wages by 35 and 25 index points, respectively.

Farm Support Services. The government budget for agricultural expenditures in 2007 amounted to P35.55 billion, this was 8.16 percent lower than the previous year’s level. In the same year, agricultural loans which added up to P560.04 billion increased by 9.94 percent. About 24 percent of the loans were utilized for production purposes. Meanwhile, irrigation development remained at less than 46 percent of the total potential irrigable areas.

Production Performance. In 2007, palay and corn production increased by 5.96 percent and 10.77 percent, respectively. On the other hand, reductions in production were noted for coconut at 0.70 percent and sugarcane at 8.67 percent. Other contributors to growth were banana, pineapple, mango and onion.

Production of carabao went up by 5.02 percent, hog by 2.72 percent and goat by 2.31 percent. Dairy had 5.00 percent output gain. Cattle production declined by 0.59 percent. Chicken had 0.47 percent production increment. A 7.68 percent output reduction was noted for duck. Production of chicken eggs expanded by 1.46 percent while that of duck eggs decreased by 6.08 percent.

Commercial fisheries had 10.31 percent production increment. Output increased by 5.57 percent in municipal fisheries and by 5.86 percent in aquaculture.

Prices. Generally, prices received by farmers for their produce have been increasing continuously as reflected in the Producer Price Index (PPI). In 2007, prices of cereals were 102.6 index points above the 1994 prices. Those of rootcrops gained 138.6 index points and those of commercial crops were 108.7 index points higher. In the case of livestock and poultry, prices were 69.8 index points and 66.3 index points higher than the 1994 prices, respectively.

International Trade. Export earnings from agriculture during the three-year period, 2005-2007, grew by an average of 12.28 percent. In 2007, the value of agricultural exports amounted to US$3.35 billion or 27.12 percent higher than in 2006. Coconut oil remained as the country’s top agricultural export. This comprised about 21 percent of the total agricultural exports. Major markets for coconut oil were United States of America and Netherlands.

The value of agricultural imports grew by an average of 10.07 percent over the three reference years. In 2007 this was placed at US$4.92 billion, up by 12.84 percent from the year-ago level. Rice and milk and cream and products accounted for 26 percent of the country’s agricultural imports. The major suppliers of rice were Vietnam and Thailand while most of the milk and cream and products came from New Zealand.