Rice inventories decline — PSA
RICE inventories as of June 1 were estimated at 2.36 million metric tons (MT), down on a year-on-year and month-on-month basis, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.
In PSA’s “Rice and Corn Stocks Inventory” released Tuesday, rice stocks fell 8.24% from a year earlier and were down 18.85% from a month earlier.
Some 46.39% of the total was held by households, while 53.56% was held by commercial rice dealers. The remaining 0.09% consisted of inventory held by the National Food Authority (NFA).
The overall rice inventory is considered sufficient for nearly 74 days’ demand.
NFA stock is good for less than a day. The NFA is mandated to maintain at least 15 days’ worth of buffer stock at any given time and at least 30 days’ worth of buffer stock for lean months, which start on July. Household stocks rose 1.47% year on year while commercial and NFA inventories fell 1.92% and 98.99%, respectively.
Month on month, commercial stocks fell 16.65%, household inventories were down 21.20% and NFA inventory fell 40.29%.
Rice stocks are expected to pick up with the arrival of 250,000 MT of imported rice to replenish the NFA’s holdings, with other imports also en route via private deals.
Corn stocks as of June 1 amounted to 592,010 MT, up 74.99% month on month and down 39.50% year on year.
Commercial entities held 92.13% of the inventory while 7.87% was held by households.
On a year- on- year basis commercial holdings fell 38.07% while those of households declined 49.22%.