Rice inventory down 4.5% in March

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s rice inventory dropped 4.5 percent in March, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

In its latest rice and corn stocks inventory report, the PSA said total rice stocks inventory stood at 2.08 million metric tons (MT) as of March 1, down from the 2.179 million MT registered in the same month a year ago.

The March figure is also 5.2 percent lower than the 2.19 million MT registered in February.

Based on the average daily consumption of Filipinos of 32,000 MT, the current inventory is sufficient for 68 days.

Households had more than half of total inventories, accounting for 59.1 percent of the total inventory.

This was followed by commercial warehouses with a 28.1 percent share of the inventory, while supplies from the National Food Authority depositories cornered 12.8 percent of the total.

On a monthly basis, rice stocks in households rose by 4.1 percent.

In contrast, stocks in commercial warehouses and NFA depositories declined by 17.5 percent and 12.3 percent, respectively.

Compared to the previous year’s level, rice stocks in households grew by 25.4 percent.

Rice stocks from commercial warehouses and NFA depositories, on the other hand, declined by 18.3 percent and 44.9 percent, respectively.

For this year, the Department of Agriculture (DA) projects a year-end stock of rice good for 75 days.

The DA aims to produce another record harvest of 20.4 million metric tons (MMT) of palay (unhusked rice) this year,one MMT more than last year’s bumper yield.

Based on the latest data from the PSA as of the fourth week of January, the average wholesale price of well milled rice increased by 0.3 percent to P37.46 per kilo.