PHL rice inventory falls 1% in September

THE national rice inventory dropped 1% year on year to 1.82 million metric tons (MT) in September, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

In its rice and corn inventory report, the PSA said rice stocks held by households rose 26% year on year to 848.36 thousand MT, while inventory held by commercial warehouses rose 3% year on year to 782.49 thousand MT.

Rice deposited with the National Food Authority (NFA) fell 53% year on year to 192.47 thousand MT.

On a month-on-month basis, rice inventory in September rose 2.1% compared with August.

Household rice inventory fell 0.5% against their August totals, while commercial warehouses stocks rose 7.2%.

Current NFA holdings also fell 5.6% month-on-month.

“Total rice stocks consisted of 46.5% from households, 42.9% from commercial warehouses, and 10.6% from NFA depositories,” the PSA said.

The national corn inventory rose 3.7% year on year to 797.37 thousand MT.

Stocks held by households rose 43% year on year to 305.22 thousand MT while commercial warehouse holdings fell 11.4% to 492.15 thousand MT.

The NFA held no corn stocks during the period.

On a month-on-month basis, corn inventory in September rose 8.9% from August.

Household corn stocks rose 216.2% while inventory held by commercial warehouses fell 22.6%.

“Of the total corn stocks, 38.3% came from households and 61.7% were from commercial warehouses,” the PSA said. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave