Rice stocks down 8% ahead of El Niño

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ total rice inventory declined by eight percent in September, ahead of the potential impact of El Niño on the country’s rice production.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the country’s total rice inventory was at 1.91 million metric tons, down from 2.07 million MT a year ago.

On a month-on-month basis, the total rice inventory dropped by 12 percent from the previous month’s inventory of 2.18 million MT.

The PSA said that this was due to the decline in the stock levels of National Food Authority (NFA) warehouses by 36 percent and households by 0.6 percent. On the other hand, inventories from the commercial sector saw a slight increase of 0.1 percent.

The Department of Agriculture has projected that El Niño could cut the country’s rice production by about 700,000 MT, as the effects of the weather event have raised concerns over domestic supply and placed additional pressure on rice prices.

The PSA reported that rice inventories for September comprised 42.8 percent from the commercial sector, 42.2 percent from households and 15 percent from NFA warehouses.

NFA administrator Larry Lacson said earlier that the reduced inventory would allow the agency to purchase more palay or unmilled rice from farmers as the wet season harvest continues.

The agency has also said that it is looking to expand its rice storage capacity, to allow the procurement of more palay from farmers.

Lacson added that the NFA would maximize available storage space, as well as newly rented warehouse facilities, to expand its palay procurement capacity.

“With the additional rented warehouses and the space we freed from our storage facilities by clearing our existing inventory, we are looking at buying as much as 500,000 MT of palay,” he said.

NFA procurement is seen to reach 592,000 MT by the end of 2026, far below its initial 790,000 MT forecast.