Rice stocks fall over 20% — PSA

RICE inventories fell by over 20% as of June 1, while the corn sector managed to triple its stocks, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said in a report.

In its June 2017 Rice and Corn Stocks Inventory, PSA said that as of June 1, rice stocks were estimated at 2.57 million metric tons (MT), down 20.47% from a year earlier.

The June 1 level was down 19.95% from a month earlier.

This translates to 76 days worth of inventory — including stocks held by households at 32 days, commercial stocks 38 days and National Food Authority (NFA) depositories six days.

The state-run grains agency is required by law to maintain at least a 15day buffer stock at any given time, and 30-day buffer stock during lean months.

Corn inventories were at 978,860 MT as of June 1, up 198% from a year earlier.

But the June 1 level was down 37.11% from a month earlier, the PSA added.

Year on year, corn stocks held by households increased by 71.30%, commercial by 222.09% and NFA warehouses by 1.36%.

Compared to the previous month, corn stocks in the households and in commercial warehouses decreased by 10.77% and 39.15%, respectively. But NFA stocks increased by 0.89%.

Around 89.97% of the total corn inventory was held by commercial warehouses, 9.32% by households and 0.65% by NFA depositories.

Corn is the main staple of 14 million Filipinos. —