Local rice stocks surge by 24.4% as corn supplies dip
CDN FILE PHOTO
Local rice stocks increased by 24.4 percent to 2.46 million metric tons (MT) as of November 1, compared to 1.98 million MT a year earlier, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
This growth is driven by higher stocks from the commercial sector and the National Food Authority (NFA). Meanwhile, corn stocks decreased.
READ: Milled rice imports set for new record high this year
Compared with October, rice inventory increased by 7.9 percent from 2.28 million MT.
The commercial sector and NFA depositories grew by 57.4 percent and 135.2 percent, respectively. However, the household sector reduced stocks by 11.4 percent.
READ: Rice in Cebu: P50 average price hike per sack amid holidays
The commercial sector accounted for 57.6 percent of the total stockpile (1.4 million MT), followed by households with a 36.6-percent share (901,210 MT).
The remaining 5.8 percent came from NFA as it maintained 141,680 MT of rice.
Lower corn supply
The PSA also reported that the country’s corn inventory had totaled 619,160 MT as of Nov. 1, a decrease of 20.6 percent from 779,460 MT.
On a monthly basis, corn stocks dropped by 14.9 percent from 727,840 MT.
The commercial sector held 540,650 MT of corn supply, down 21.3 percent, while household stocks fell by 14.7 percent to 78,510 MT.
About 87.3 percent of last month’s corn inventory came from the commercial sector and 12.7 percent from households.
Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa assured the public of sufficient supply of rice, pork and chicken this month.
De Mesa, also the DA’s spokesperson, said on Thursday (translated from Filipino), “This December, we have good rice supply, although we expect local production to decrease. Regarding imports, we can expect the volume to reach as high as 4.5 million metric tons.”
The DA expects to maintain more than 100 days of national rice inventory by the end of the year. De Mesa said this would last until the next harvest as there are still additional imports coming.
Recently, the DA revised downward its palay output projection this year to 19.3 million MT—a number seen to decline further due to the severe impact of typhoons and other weather disruptions.
De Mesa also said the country had enough supply of chicken and pork, while stocks of lowland vegetables were recovering after sustaining damage from recent storms.
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
