THE COUNTRY’S rice stocks totalled 2.55 million metric tons (MT) as of Jan. 1, up by 11.40% from the previous year’s level of 2.29 million MT, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Friday.
PSA’s Rice and Corn Stocks Inventory report showed that rice stocks increased in commercial warehouses but went down in households and warehouses of the National Food Authority (NFA).
Inventories in commercial warehouses increased by 40.59% to 1.21 million MT as of Jan. 1 from 857,280 MT the previous year.
Meanwhile, household stocks decreased by 5.88% to 1.25 million MT as of the start of the year from 1.33 million MT a year ago. NFA stocks also declined to 97,910 MT from 100,860 MT last year.
Household stocks contributed 48.91% to the total inventory of the staple at of Jan. 1, while commercial stocks comprised 47.25% and NFA warehouses, 3.84%.
Meanwhile, the PSA reported that the average farmgate price of palay was logged at P19.73 per kilogram (/kg) in the fourth week of January, down 0.30% from P19.79/kg a week ago.
Average wholesale price of well-milled rice was at P41.50/kg in the fourth week, lower by 0.17%. Average retail price of well-milled rice, on the other hand, was at P45/kg in the fourth week, down 0.27% from the previous week.
On the other hand, the average wholesale price of regular milled rice was at P38.25/kg, declining by 0.21% from the prior week, while average retail price was at P41.16/kg, down 0.60%, according to the PSA.
CORN STOCKS
As for the country’s corn stocks inventory, the total as of Jan. 1 was at 676,130 MT, down 28.95% from 951,600 MT at the start of 2018.
Commercial warehouses’ stocks decreased by 36.03% to 560,520 MT as of Jan. 1 from 876,180 MT the previous year. Household stocks, meanwhile, increased by 54.17% to 115,610 MT from 74,990 MT year-on-year.
Meanwhile, NFA held zero stocks of corn as of Jan. 1.
PSA data showed that the average farmgate price of yellow corngrain fell by 0.57% to P13.90/kg in the fourth week of January from P13.98/kg the previous week. Its average wholesale price, meanwhile, rose 0.05% to P20.31/kg from P20.30/kg.
The average retail price of yellow corngrain also went up 0.28% to P25.18/kg in the fourth week of January from P25.11/kg a week ago.
White corngrain’s average farmgate price, meanwhile, remained at P13.98/kg in the fourth week of January. Its average wholesale price also remained at P20.80/kg, while average retail price was steady at P28.12/kg. — RJNI

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