THE NATIONAL rice inventory fell 1.9% year-on-year to 2.178 million metric tons (MT) in March, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.
In its Rice and Corn Stocks Inventory report, the PSA said that rice held by households fell 5.1% year-on-year to 981.02 thousand MT while stocks held by commercial warehouses rose 2.9% to 715.81 thousand MT.
National Food Authority (NFA) inventories fell 2.1% year-on-year to 481.81 thousand MT.
On a month-on-month basis, the national rice inventory fell 8.3%, with household stocks declining 6.2%, commercial holdings falling 14.9%, and the NFA inventory down 1.4%.
Meanwhile, corn inventories in March rose 99.8% year-on-year to 793.28 thousand MT.
Corn stocks held by households rose 80.5% to 202.77 thousand MT while commercial warehouse inventories rose 107.4% to 590.51 thousand MT.
NFA held no corn stocks during the month.
Month-on-month, the household corn inventory rose 32.4% while holdings of commercial warehouses rose 17.8%.
Separately, the average farmgate price of palay, or unmilled rice, rose 1% week-on-week to P16.41 per kilogram in the third week of March, with a 12.9% decline year-on-year, according to the PSA.
In its weekly update on palay, rice, and corn prices, the PSA said the average wholesale and retail price of well-milled rice (WMR) rose 0.3% week-on-week to P37.14 and P41.26 respectively.
The average wholesale price of regular-milled rice (RMR) rose 0.7% week-on-week to P33.01 while the retail price rose 0.5% to P36.36.
The average farmgate price of yellow corn grain fell 0.3% week-on-week to P12.09.
The average wholesale and retail price of yellow corn grain fell 0.2% week-on-week to P21.44 and P24.94 respectively.
The average farmgate price of white corn grain rose 2.2% week-on-week to P13.57.
The average wholesale price of white corn grain rose 6.5% week-on-week to P16.33, while the retail price remained flat at P26.90. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
