MANILA, Philippines — The country’s rice stocks in September rose by almost seven percent on an annual basis to nearly 1.7 million metric tons (MT) on the back of higher inventories held by commercial entities and the National Food Authority (NFA).
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that nationwide rice stocks as of Sept. 1 stood at 1.66 million MT, 6.8 percent higher than the 1.55 million MT recorded in the same period last year.
The increase was driven by higher rice inventories in commercial entities and NFA warehouses, according to the PSA report.
Rice stocks in commercial entities rose by 16.4 percent to 1.05 million MT from last year’s 902,290 MT.
NFA warehouses, on the other hand, held 151,160 MT of rice during the reference month, almost triple the 50,950 MT it had in September last year.
Meanwhile, household rice stocks fell by 23.7 percent year-on-year to 457,820 MT from 600,170 MT last year.
In contrast, rice stocks declined on a monthly basis as recorded inventories in commercial warehouses and households fell, according to the PSA report.
Industry sources said the lower rice stocks could be attributed to private traders and importers opting to deplete their old stocks before replenishing these with newer ones, coupled with households unable to build up their stocks at home due to high retail prices.
Rice stocks in households declined month-on-month by 17 percent while inventory of commercial warehouses decreased by 9.8 percent versus August figures, based on PSA data. NFA rice stocks, meanwhile, remained relatively flat on a monthly basis.
“Of this month’s total rice stocks, 63.3 percent were from the commercial sector, 27.6 percent were from the households, and 9.1 percent were from the NFA depositories,” the PSA said.
The United States Department of Agriculture – Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) in Manila projected that NFA rice stocks would continue to increase in succeeding months while household stocks would sustain a decrease.
“FAS Manila forecasts that stocks of the commercial sector will decrease once old import stocks are liquidated, given tariff reductions until 2028,” it said.