Philippine rice inventory slightly down in September

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s rice inventory slightly declined to 1.82 million metric tons (MT) in September from 1.84 million a year ago, according to the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.

However, it is 2.1 percent higher than the previous month’s volume stock of 1.79 million MT.

Based on the average daily consumption of Filipinos of 32,000 MT, the current inventory is sufficient for 57 days.

Households had nearly half of total inventories at 46.5 percent, while commercial warehouses held about 42.9 percent. Supplies from the National Food Authority depositories cornered 10.6 percent of the total.

On a monthly basis, rice stocks in households and NFA depositories decreased by 0.5 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively.

Rice inventory in commercial warehouses, however, saw a 7.2 percent hike.

Meanwhile, prices of Filipinos’ main staple continued to be on the downward trend year-on-year.

According to the PSA, the average wholesale price of well-milled rice is now at P38.18 per kilogram as of end-September.

This is 0.03 percent lower than the P38.19 per kilo level from the same period a year ago and 0.4 percent lower on a weekly basis.

Its average retail price also decreased by 0.1 percent to P42 per kilo, while week-on-week prices declined by 0.3 percent.

The wholesale price of regular-milled rice was P34.43 per kilo, down 0.8 percent while its average retail price was P37.68 a kilo.

Local farmers, on the other hand, have seen a continued drop in farmgate prices for six consecutive weeks now.

The average farmgate price of palay declined further to P16.26 per kilo compared to P16.84 the previous week.  However, it was 2.8 percent higher year on year.