Local rice stockpile up 24% but corn supply down 21%
Local rice inventory has climbed by nearly a quarter this year, bolstered by higher stocks of the commercial sector and the National Food Authority (NFA), while corn stocks declined.
Local rice stockpile rose by 24.4 percent to 2.46 million metric tons (MT) as of Nov. 1, from 1.98 million MT in the same period a year ago, based on a report from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
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.
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.
