Rice inventories down, corn stocks up as of Aug 1 — PSA

AT 1.52 million metric tons, the national rice inventory should last the Philippines 47 days — just short of President Duterte’s mandated 60 day supply.

By Anna Gabriela A. Mogato
TOTAL rice inventories as of Aug. 1 were further depleted at 1.52 million metric tons (MT), data from the Philippine Stocks Authority (PSA) showed.
In PSA’s Rice and Corn Stocks Inventory report released on Tuesday, the latest recorded stocks were 25.01% lower than last year’s 2.03 million MT. Month on month, this is also down 23.61% from the 1.99 million MT recorded on July 1 earlier this year.
This 1.52 million MT is deemed sufficient for around 47 days.
President Rodrigo R. Duterte, however, mandated that the national inventory should be able to last for up to 60 days after the NFA faced tight rice supply due to delayed bidding and importation of rice to refill their buffer stocks.
Households, which only saw its stocks slide by 0.26% year on year to 746,380 MT, took up 49.08% of the total rice stocks inventory, PSA said.
Commercial warehouses took up 44.27% of the pie while National Food Authority (NFA) shouldered the remaining 6.65%.
Among all inventories, commercial warehouses saw the steepest year on year drop in stocks, plummeting by 42.51% to 673,230 MT.
This was followed by the NFA which had its stocks drop by 6.94% to 101,150 MT despite the arrival of imported rice during the period.
Month on month, commercial warehouses’ stocks were down by 28.77%, followed by household stocks by 24.79%.
NFA stocks, however saw a 89.78% jump from previously recorded stocks.
The state grains agency is mandated to have 15 days’ worth of buffer stock at any given time and 30 days’ worth of buffer stocks during lean season — from the month of July to September. Currently, NFA’s stocks are deemed sufficient for only around 3 days.
Household and commercial warehouse stocks are deemed sufficient for 23 and 21 days, respectively.
Unlike rice stocks, total corn inventory surged by 75.45% to 1.22 million MT from 696,460 MT last year. Month on month, this is also 154.11% higher from the 480,860 MT recorded as of July 1.
Commercial warehouses lead all other inventories with an 89.44% increase from last year’s stocks to 1.15 million MT. Month on month, this is 173.83% higher from 420,600 MT worth of stocks recorded in the previous report.
Household stocks, while posting a 15.90% year on year drop, still grew by 16.51% in a monthly comparison to 70,210 MT.