Philippines: Rice stocks down 26% in October

• Nov 26, 2021

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s rice inventory continued to drop in October, declining by 26.2 percent, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

In its latest rice and corn stocks inventory report, the PSA said total rice stocks inventory stood at 1.95 million metric tons (MT) as of Oct. 1, lower than the 2.6 million MT registered in the same period a year ago.

Based on the average daily consumption of Filipinos of 32,000 MT, the current inventory is sufficient for 61 days.

Households accounted for the bulk of the inventory or 54.2 percent at 1.06 million MT.

This was followed by commercial warehouses with a 37.3 percent share at 728,690 MT.

In addition, supplies from the National Food Authority (NFA) depositories cornered 8.5 percent or 166,340 MT.

Compared to the previous year’s level, rice stocks in households dropped by 26.9 percent.

Similarly, rice stocks in commercial warehouses and NFA depositories posted declines of 23.9 percent and 30.7 percent, respectively.

On a monthly basis, rice stocks in households grew by 66.1 percent.

Stocks in commercial warehouses and NFA depositories also increased by 34.2 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, the PSA also reported that the country’s corn stocks inventory dropped by 47.9 percent to 513,930 MT as of Oct.1 from 985,540 MT in the same period last year.

On a monthly basis,corn inventory also declined by 8.3 percent from the previous month’s  560,610 MT.

Corn stocks in commercial warehouses accounted for the bulk of the inventory or 58.5 percent at 300,770 MT.

In contrast, households accounted for 41.5 percent of the total inventory at 213,160 MT.

Palay or unhusked rice production reached 12.6 million MT, higher than the 11.9 million MT produced in the same period last year.

Corn production, on the other hand, declined by 4.5 percent to 6.17 million MT.

Source: https://www.philstar.com/business/2021/11/26/2143784/rice-stocks-down-26-october