March rice stocks fall to one-year low

MANILA, Philippines —  Despite rising on an annual basis, the country’s monthly rice stocks fell to their lowest level in a year as supplies in both commercial entities and households declined, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Nationwide rice inventory as of March 1 reached 1.61 million metric tons (MT), about 18 percent higher than the 1.37 million MT recorded level in the same period last year, the PSA said.

However, the latest stock level fell by almost a fifth from February’s 2.01 million MT recorded inventory, according to the PSA.

The latest March rice inventory level is the lowest in a year or since the 1.37 million MT recorded in the same month of last year, PSA data showed.

PSA data indicated that rice stocks in households grew by nearly 13 percent year-on-year to 784,500 MT from 694,620 MT. Rice inventory of National Food Authority (NFA) surged to nearly 300,000 MT from 41,290 MT last year.

Meanwhile, rice stocks of commercial sector as of March 1 fell by 16.3 percent to 527,780 MT from 630,290 MT in the same period last year.

“In comparison to the February 2025 rice stocks levels, monthly decrements were noted from the commercial sector by 42.8 percent and in the households by 1.3 percent,” the PSA said.

“Meanwhile, rice stocks inventory from the NFA depositories increased by 3.7 percent,” the PSA added.

The PSA said 48.7 percent of the latest rice inventory came from households while 32.7 percent were from the commercial sector and the remaining 18.6 percent from the NFA.

The PSA also reported that the country’s corn inventory as of March 1 declined by 32.6 percent year-on-year to 368,510 MT from 546,890 MT. Likewise, it declined also compared to its February inventory level of 451,190 MT by 18.3 percent.

Corn stocks in the commercial sector reached 315,620 MT while those in households were estimated at 52,890 MT, according to the PSA.

“From the same month of the previous year’s level, corn stocks inventory recorded annual decreases from the commercial sector by 36.1 percent and from the households by 0.9 percent,” the PSA said.

“Relative to the inventory level in February 2025, monthly decrement was noted from the commercial sector by 22.0 percent. On the other hand, the volume of corn stocks from the households increased by 14.2 percent,” the PSA added.