The country’s rice inventory as of December 1 fell by 10.7 percent to 2.766 million metric tons from last year’s 3.098 MMT, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported.
In its monthly rice and corn stocks inventory report, the PSA said the latest nationwide staple stockpile was also 12.4 percent lower than the 3.158 MMT recorded in November.
The PSA said bulk of the rice inventory, or about 58.5 percent, were from households, while the 28.7 percent and 12.8 percent were kept in commercial warehouses and National Food Authority (NFA) depositories, respectively.
Rice inventory held by households grew slightly to 1.618 MMT from 1.607 MMT recorded in the same period of last year. Rice stocks in commercial warehouses were at 794,710 MT, while those in NFA warehouses were estimated at 352,980 MT.
“In contrast, decreases of 21.3 percent and 26.6 percent in rice stocks were noted in commercial warehouses and NFA depositories, respectively,” the PSA said in its report published on Monday.
“Meanwhile, all sectors recorded excrements in rice stocks compared with the previous month’s levels. Rice stocks inventory in households, commercial warehouses, and NFA depositories,” the PSA added.
In the same report, the PSA said the country’s nationwide corn inventory grew by 20.9 percent to 960,950 MT from last year’s 794,870 MT.
However, the volume was 6 percent lower than last month’s inventory of 1.021 MMT, the PSA added.
“Of this month’s total corn stocks, 36.6 percent were from households and 63.4 percent were from commercial warehouses,” it said. Corn stocks in households were estimated at 351,990 MT while the remaining volume of 608,960 MT was with commercial warehouses, according to the PSA.
“Relative to the previous year’s level, corn stocks in the households rose by 93.1 percent, whereas stocks in commercial warehouses were lower by 0.6 percent,” the PSA said.
“Compared with the previous month’s level, corn stocks in the households increased by 1.6 percent while stocks in commercial warehouses decreased by 9.9 percent,” the PSA added.