Rice inventory down to 2.1 MT in July

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s rice inventory went down in July as volume of the main staple continues to be released amid the coronavirus disease pandemic.

Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that total rice inventory as of July stood at 2.1 million metric tons (MT), 19.8 percent lower than the previous year’s volume stock of 2.63 million MT.

The current inventory is also 12.2 percent lower from the previous month’s volume stock of 2.4 million MT.

The PSA did not specify the number of days that the stock inventory of Filipinos’ main staple will be sufficient.

But, based on the average daily consumption of Filipinos of 32,000 MT, the current inventory is sufficient for 66 days.

Households had more than half of total inventories at 51 percent, while commercial warehouses held about 38.4 percent. Supplies from the National Food Authority depositories account for 10.6 percent of the total.

On a monthly basis, rice stocks in households and commercial warehouses decreased by 15 percent and nine percent, respectively. A 10 percent decrease was also noted in NFA depositories.

Meanwhile, prices of Filipinos’ main staple continued to be on the downward trend year-on-year and have slowly stabilized compared when the quarantine started in March.

PSA said the average wholesale price of well-milled rice is now at P39.34 per kilogram as of the fourth week of July.

This is 0.2 percent higher than the P39.27 per kilo level from the same period a year ago, but 0.1 percent lower on a weekly basis.

Its average retail price also decreased by 0.5 percent to P42.63 per kilo, while week-on-week prices inched up 0.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the wholesale price of regular-milled rice was P35.74 per kilo, up 0.1 percent, while its average retail price was at P38.51 a kilo.

Local farmers, on the other hand, are slowly seeing a gradual increase in farmgate prices.

The average farmgate price of palay (unhusked rice) is now at P18.63 per kilo, a 4.2 percent improvement from the P17.88 per kilo last year.

However, on a weekly basis, it registered a 1.2 percent decrease.