PSA: Lockdown derailed rice data collection

THE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said it was not able to release rice stock inventory data for the past three months due to the lockdown implemented by the government to contain the spread of Covid-19.

National Statistician Claire Dennis S. Mapa told the Businessmirror that the PSA was not able to collect data due to the lockdown, which was imposed starting mid-march.

The last time the PSA released rice inventory data was last April 7 which covered data as of March 1.

“There was a delay in the data collection due to the lockdown in April, the field offices are consolidating the reports,” Mapa said via SMS. “We will publish the report next week.”

Mapa said the data will be presented to him first prior to the release of the data this week.

Covid-19 has significantly affected the operations of PSA this year. In April, the PSA had to postpone the conduct of the Census of Population and Housing (CPH) this year to September due to the pandemic.

To prevent the spread of Covid-19, the PSA also had to reduce its operations, such as its Civil Registration System (CRS) outlets, which were reduced by 50 percent in May.

However, PSA said it remains committed to continue its field operations to conduct surveys. PSA was still able to release data such as inf lation, GDP, and the Labor Force Survey.

This was largely due to the continuation of surveys such as the Consumer Price Index; agricultural statistics, including the price of rice; and Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries.

Based on the PSA’S March rice stocks inventory report released in April, the country’s total rice stocks stood at 2.18 million metric tons (MMT). The figure was 1.9 percent lower than the 2.22 MMT recorded in March 2019. Compared to February, total rice stocks contracted by 8.3 percent from the 2.38 MMT recorded in that month.

PSA said compared to the rice stocks inventory in March 2019, stocks in the households and National Food Authority (NFA) depositories decreased by 5.1 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively. However, stocks in commercial warehouses rose by 2.9 percent.

Month-on-month, PSA data showed that rice stocks inventory in households, commercial warehouses and NFA depositories declined by 6.2 percent,14.9 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.