THE national rice inventory declined 11.3% year on year, while corn stocks rose 10.3% in early July, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.
In a report, the PSA said the rice inventory was 1.80 million metric tons (MT), with the sharp fall in rice volume held by the National Food Authority (NFA) driving the decline.
“Of this month’s total rice stocks, 54.6% were from the commercial sector, 42% were from the households, and 3.4% were from NFA depositories,” the PSA said.
Rice held by the NFA fell 62.1% year on year to 60.84 thousand MT, while household rice stocks fell 28.7% to 771 thousand MT.
Commercial warehouses held 984.76 thousand MT for the period, rising 21.6% from a year earlier.
On a month-on-month basis, the rice inventory fell 0.04% compared to June.
“Month-on-month decreases in rice stocks were noted in both NFA depositories and household sector at 28.5% and 14.3%, respectively. Meanwhile, rice held by commercial entities increased 16.1%,” it said.
Meanwhile, the PSA said that the inventory for corn rose to 833.76 thousand MT in early July from 746.92 thousand MT a year earlier.
“About 92.9% of this month’s total corn stocks were held by the commercial sector, while the remaining 7.1% were held by households,” it added.
Commercial corn increased 14.2% year on year to 765.17 thousand MT.
Corn held by households, on the other hand, declined 23.6% to 58.6 thousand MT.
On a month-on-month comparison, the national corn inventory dipped 7.1%.
“The volume of corn stocks in both household and commercial sectors registered month-on-month decrements of 38.0% and 3.4%, respectively,” the PSA said. — Adrian H. Halili
