THE rice inventory as of Feb. 1 fell 5.4% year on year to 1.52 million metric tons (MT), the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.
“Relative to their respective levels from the same period of last year, decrements in rice stocks were noted in all sectors,” the PSA said in a report.
Rice held by households fell 0.6% to 887.03 thousand MT, accounting for 57.6% of the total inventory.
Inventory held in commercial warehouses decreased 0.7% to 541.21 thousand metric tons, equivalent to 35.5% of the rice stock.
Rice stored in National Food Authority (NFA) depositories, which accounts for 6.9% of the total, fell 42.2% to 104.79 thousand metric tons.
On a month-on-month basis, the national rice inventory fell 17.7%.
“Compared with their record in the previous month, rice stocks in all sectors for February 2023 contracted by 19.1% in the household, 17% in commercial sector, and 8.8% in NFA depositories,” the PSA said.
In the same report, the PSA said the corn inventory declined 22.5% year on year to 336.40 thousand MT.
Household corn stocks, which accounted for 20.5% of the total, decreased 20.2% to 75.12 thousand MT.
Corn stored in commercial warehouses, which accounted for 79.5% of the total, fell 23% to 291.28 thousand MT.
Compared to a month earlier, the corn stockpile fell 10.5%.
“Of this month’s corn inventory, household stocks displayed a downturn of 4.7% from the previous month’s inventory level,” the PSA said.
“Consistently, a month-on-month decrement of 11.9% was observed in commercial stocks,” it added. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera
