PHL rice stocks grow 43% to 3-mo high of 2.279 MMT

THE country’s total rice inventory as of October 1, expanded by 43.4 percent to a three-month high of 2.279 million metric tons (MMT) due to the increase in the stocks held by households, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.

In its monthly rice inventory report, the PSA said the volume as of October 1, was 690,000 metric tons (MT) higher than the 1.589 MMT recorded in the same period last year.

Furthermore, the latest total rice inventory was 23.7 percent over

the September 1 stockpile of 1.842 MMT stockpile, the PSA added.

“Rice stocks in all sectors grew compared with their levels in the previous year,” the PSA said in the report published on Monday.

Of the total rice inventory during the reference period, 46.2 percent or around 1.052 MMT were held by households, while 36.5 percent or 832,540 MT were in commercial warehouses. The remaining rice stocks of about 394,710 MT were stored at the warehouses of the National Food Authority (NFA).

“Stocks in the households and commercial warehouses increased by 22.5 percent and 38.2 percent, respectively. Likewise, continuous upsurge was recorded in NFA depositories at 207.3 percent,” the PSA said.

“Compared with previous month’s inventory level, rice stocks in households and commercial warehouses increased by 56.4 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively. However, a 3.6-percent decrease was noted in NFA depositories,” it added.

In the same report, the PSA said the country’s total corn inventory almost doubled during the reference period to 1.095 MMT, from last year’s 566,830 MT.

“Moreover, it was higher by 42.6 percent than the 768,660 metric tons inventory level from the preceding month,” it said.

“Total corn stocks inventory level comprised of 27.9 percent from the households and 72.1 percent from commercial warehouses,” it added.

Corn stocks in commercial warehouses reached 790,690 MT, 90.4 percent higher than last year’s 415,360 MT, while household inventory doubled to 305,230 MT from 151,470 MT, PSA said.

“The existing corn stocks in all sectors escalated from the previous month’s level. Stocks in households increased by 43.0 percent and in commercial warehouses by 42.4 percent,” it added.