Rice inventory up in January

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s rice inventory rose 11 percent in January, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.

Latest data from the PSA showed that total rice inventory reached 2.55 million metric tons (MT) compared to the previous year’s 2.28 million MT.

This, however, is six percent lower than the year ago’s 2.72 million MT.

The PSA did not specify the number of days the stock inventory of Filipinos’ main staple would be sufficient.

Based on the average daily consumption of Filipinos of 32,000 MT, the current inventory is sufficient for 80 days.

The National Food Authority, meanwhile, has already improved its inventory following the additional incentive in its buying price, which allowed it to buy more palay during the last harvest season.

Households had almost half of the total inventory at 49 percent while commercial warehouses held about 47 percent. Supplies from NFA depositories cornered four percent of the total.

On a monthly basis, stocks in the households and NFA depositories declined by 18 percent and four percent respectively, while stocks in commercial warehouses rose 11 percent.

In terms of prices of Filipinos’ main staple, it continued to be on a downward trend following ongoing arrival of imports and the recently concluded harvest season.

On a weekly basis, the average wholesale price of well-milled rice decreased by one percent to P41.50 per kilogram during the last week of January.

Its weekly average retail price also declined  by one percent to P45 per kilo.

Meanwhile, the wholesale price of regular-milled rice was P38.25 per kilo, nearly two percent lower than the year-ago level. Its average retail price also fell two percent to P41.16 per kilo.

The average farm gate price of palay continued to decrease to P19.73 per kilo.

On the other hand, corn stock inventory declined to 676,130 MT as of Jan. 29 from 951,600 MT a year ago.

Of the total, 83 percent was in commercial warehouses while the remaining 17 percent was in households. NFA had no stocks during the period.

Month-on-month, the stock level in household jumped 20 percent and stocks in commercial warehouses rose five percent.