Annual production growth in seafood, poultry and crops has propelled the Philippine’s agricultural sector by 1.9% in Q1, 2025.
The Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA) on May 7, 2025 reported that agriculture and aquaculture generated 437.74 billion peso ($7.89 billion) this first quarter. This is vis-á-vis the 429.62 billion peso ($7.75 billion) of Q1, 2024.
Crops
Although their output rose modestly by 1%, crops generated 249.61 billion peso ($4.5 billion) or 57% of the industry’s total.
The returns marked a significant turnaround for crops, which had retracted in production by -2.2% back in 2024.
Tobacco had the highest production growth among crops at 80.4% while cocoa, cane and rubber posted 23.6%, 19% and 13.6%, respectively.
Palay (unhusked) rice, a price-sensitive crop due to production versus consumption needs, grew in output by a meager 0.3%. This was however an improvement from 2024 when its production continually fell across all quarters.
Poultry and Fisheries
Poultry production enjoyed smooth growth by 9.4% year-on-year (y-o-y), albeit one lesser in revenue than for crops.
Returns by this domestic bird sector topped 75.22 billion peso ($1.36 billion), courtesy generous positive showing by most production niches.
The leading niche was hen’s eggs, whose output rose by 12.1%, hand-in-hand with live chicken at 8.7%.
Also in the expansion pool were fisheries, which posted 1.5% growth, y-o-y, to 55.1 billion peso ($994 million).
In revenue terms, the fisheries’ revenue value represented 12.6% among all agricultural sectors. Uptick production growth of slipmouth at 21% and mudcrab at 20%, y-o-y, fueled the monetary contribution.
Quarter 1, 2025 has therefore been a turnaround timeline for agriculture in the Philippines. It has even posted agricultural production growth for even currently lackluster sectors like rice that heavily depend on imports. To learn more on the PH’s agri-food performance in past years, peruse the below statistics.
The Philippines Agricultural Production Growth Statistics
Agricultural production growth in the PH is important economically since the agriculture offers livelihoods to 37% of the national workforce. In 2023, agriculture grew by 1.2%, while the rival industrial sector expanded by 3.6%. 2024, however, was a dismal year for agriculture for it brought negative growth of –2.2% due to a production downturn.
How has value added agriculture, fisheries and forestry performed in the past 7 decades in the PH?
Volatile highs and lows have periodically informed the annual value addition growth in agriculture, fisheries and forestry in the Philippines. The following decade-by-decade table, courtesy of the World Bank, highlights this performance.
| Year | Growth [%] |
| 2023 | 1.2 |
| 2013 | 2.9 |
| 2009 | -0.1 |
| 1999 | 9.6 |
| 1998 | -7 |
| 1986 | 3.7 |
| 1976 | 7.3 |
| 1964 | -0.1 |