THE country’s rice inventory at the start of August fell by a fifth to a 10-month low of 1.52 million metric tons (MMT), according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
In its monthly inventory report, the PSA said the country’s total rice stockpile as of August 1 declined by 25.01 percent, from the previous year’s level of 2.028 MMT.
This is the lowest rice inventory held by the country since September 2017 when total stockpile was at 1.422 MMT.
“[The current inventory] was 23.61 percent lower than last month’s inventory level of 1.99 [million] metric tons,” the PSA said in the report.
About half of the total rice inventory during the reference period or about 49.08 percent were held by households, while 44.27 percent were in commercial warehouses.
The buffer stock of the National Food Authority (NFA) only accounted for 6.65 percent of the country’s total inventory.
Rice stocks held by households reached 746,380 MT, while inventories in commercial warehouses and NFA depositories were at 673,230 MT and 101,150 MT, respectively.
“Relative to the previous year’s rice stocks inventory, a drop of 0.26 percent, 42.51 percent and 6.94 percent were observed in the households, commercial warehouses and NFA depositories respectively,” the PSA said.
“Rice stocks inventory level in both households and commercial warehouses declined by 24.79 percent and 28.77 percent, respectively in comparison to their previous month’s levels,” the PSA added.
The PSA report noted that the NFA’s rice stockpile nearly doubled from its inventory on July 1 of 53,300 MT due to importation.
Furthermore, the PSA report showed that the country’s total corn inventory as of August 1 expanded by 75.45 percent to 1.221 MMT, from 696,460-MT recorded level last year.
“Also, corn stocks inventory for the period was almost thrice the level in the previous month,” it added.
The country’s corn inventory on July 1 was pegged at 480,860 MT.
The PSA said the bulk of the country’s corn inventory or about 94.25 percent were held by commercial warehouses, while the remaining 5.75 percent were from the households.
Corn inventory of commercial warehouses reached 1.151 MMT, while household stocks were estimated at 70,210 MT.
“Corn stocks inventory level in commercial warehouses grew by 89.44 percent with reference to last year’s level, while households stocks declined by 15.9 eprcent,” the PSA said.
“Month-on-month, corn stocks inventory level in households increased by 16.51 percent. For commercial stocks, it was almost thrice the July 2018 inventory level,” the PSA added.