Philippines braces for another typhoon after storms swamp crops

MANILA — The Philippines is set to be drenched by its fourth storm in just over a month, which threatens to add to a growing tally of crop losses that total at least 11.5 billion pesos (US$197 million) this year.
Typhoon Yinxing — known locally as Marce — is forecast to bring more than 200 millimetres (8 inches) of torrential rain to Cagayan province from Thursday, according to the nation’s weather bureau. The region remains heavily waterlogged due to downpours from recent storms.
Luzon, the main island of the Philippines, is still reeling from a direct hit from Severe Tropical Storm Trami last month, which killed over 100 people and has caused 6.2 billion pesos in damages to the farm sector, the most since Typhoon Goni in 2020. Krathon and Kong-Rey also dumped heavy rain across the nation’s north in October as they tracked offshore before hitting Taiwan.
Rice bore the brunt of Trami, incurring more than 4 billion pesos of losses, with widespread destruction of crops threatening to filter through to food inflation and lead to higher imports. The nation’s inflation rose 2.3% year-on-year in October, spurred by faster price gains in rice.
Nearly 1.1 million hectares of rice and corn crops could be affected by Yinxing, according to the agriculture department.
Yinxing is currently about 590 kilometres (367 miles) east of Baler and has top sustained winds of 120km per hour. The typhoon may make landfall Thursday evening near the sparsely populated Babuyan Islands or clip the northern part of Cagayan on Luzon.
Impact of other storms and monsoon rains on crops, excluding damage to other agriculture sectors including irrigation, machinery and fisheries, according to government data compiled by Bloomberg.
Figures for Kong-Rey are yet to be released.