Heavy rains in late October, affected the maturing (main) rice crop somewhat. Main rice is mainly planted around May/June for harvest in Oct/Nov. The procurement price of paddy has been increased to support local farmers who experienced difficulty due to excessive rains this year, attributed partly to La Nina weather disturbances. The increase in support price will be given to farmers selling rice (with up to 24 percent moisture content). Despite losses in parts to excessive rains and to typhoon damage, rice production this year is expected to be appreciably higher than in recent years. First and second quarter production were also favourable and official reports expect paddy output to be around 11.76 million metric tonnes (7.64 million tonnes of milled rice) this (calendar) year. This represents an almost 3 million tonne or 35 percent increase over the 1998 calendar year. Improved rice prospects mean that import demand will be much lower than last year.