The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported an increase in domestic trade quantity and value between 2015 and 2016 for the different regions in Mindanao.
Data from the agency showed that the quantity of domestic trade in Mindanao grew by 51.3 % to 6.37 million tons in 2016 from P4.21 million tons in 2015 while the value of domestic trade grew by 45.92% to P169.6 billion from P116.22 billion.
Soccsksargen saw the biggest growth in terms of both quantity and value of domestic trade.
Quantity of commodities traded between Soccsksargen and other areas increased by 956.8% to 638,496 tons in 2016 from 60,420 tons in 2015 while the value of domestic trade for the region increased by 550% to P15 billion from P2.31 billion. However, in terms of ranking, Soccsksargen only ranks fourth among the regions in Mindanao that has the biggest domestic trade.
Davao Region also experienced a huge increase in the growth of its quantity and value of domestic trade at 571.9% and 121.8%, respectively. Quantity of domestic trade in the region increased to 1.89 million tons in 2016 from 282,468 tons in 2015 while domestic trade value increased to P34.20 billion from P15.42 billion. Davao Region has the second highest domestic trade quantity and value for Mindanao.
Despite having a decreased in the quantity of trade, Northern Mindanao remains to the have the largest domestic trade in Mindanao, both in quantity and value.
The quantity of domestic trade for Northern Mindanao decreased by 5.7% to 2.72 million tons in 2016, from 2.88 million tons in 2015. However, the region's value of domestic trade increased by 10% to P68.79 billion from P62.52 billion.
Caraga's quantity of domestic trade increased by 9.1% to 774,577 tons from 709,966 tons while the value increased by 42.7% to P38.11 billion from P26.70 billion.
Quantity of domestic trade of Zamboanga Peninsula increased by 21.6 percent to 172,126 tons from 141,566 tons while the value increased by 39.4% to P8.70 billion from 6.24 billion.
Lastly, the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (Armm) recorded a 26.1% and 58% increase for the quantity and value of its domestic trade, respectively. Quantity increased to 166,745 tons from 132,204 tons while the value of the region's domestic trade increased to P4.79 billion from P3.03 billion.
Data from PSA also showed that total quantity of domestic trade grew by 25% to 24.35 million tons in 2016 from 19.49 million tons in 2015. On the other hand, total value of domestic trade grew by 35.6% to P871.67 billion from P642.64 billion in 2015.
The bulk of commodities that were being traded domestically were food and live animals at 6.61 million tons or P216.23 billion, which is an increase from 2015's quantity of 4.46 million tons and value of P177.91 billion.
Second most traded commodity are mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials at 6.20 million tons valued at P79.07 billion. Rounding up the top three are manufactured goods classified chiefly by material at 3.57 million tons valued at P105.75 billion.
Despite not being in the three most domestically traded commodities in 2016, machinery and transport equipment, which has a trade quantity of 2.73 million, has the highest trade value at P281.71 billion.
In a statement, PSA said the National Capital Region (NCR) has the largest share in value of domestic trade at P275.64 billion. It is followed by Central Visayas (P141.65 billion), Western Visayas (P116.32 billion), Eastern Visayas (P93.98 billion), and Northern Mindanao (P68.79 billion).
In terms of quantity of domestic trade, Central Luzon has the largest share at 5.34 million tons; followed by NCR (3.77 million tons), Central Visayas (3.37 million tons), Northern Mindanao (2.72 million tons), and Western Visayas (2.42 million tons).(RJL)