Typhoons bring down rice inventory by 13%

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s rice inventory declined in January as an effect of the consecutive typhoons that hit Luzon at the tail end of 2020.

Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that total rice inventory reached  2.33 million metric tons (MT) in the first month of the year, 13 percent lower than the  2.68 million MT in the same period last year.

The current inventory is also 15.7 percent lower than the previous month’s 2.77 million MT.

Based on the average daily consumption of Filipinos of 32,000 MT, the current inventory is sufficient for 73 days.

Households had more than half of total inventories at 55.3 percent, while commercial warehouses held about 29.6 percent. Supplies from the National Food Authority depositories cornered 15.1 percent of the total.

On a monthly basis, rice stocks across all sectors showed declines in inventories.

Households, commercial, and NFA depositories decreased by 20 percent, 13 percent, and 0.1 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile,  the average wholesale price of well-milled rice stood at P37.37 per kilogram as of the second week of January,  0.2 percent higher than the  week ago and 0.9 percent higher year on year.

Its average retail price, however, decreased by 0.7 percent to P40.93 per kilo while week-on-week prices inched up 0.1 percent.

The wholesale price of regular-milled rice was P33.33 per kilo, down 0.1 percent while its average retail price was P36.14 a kilo.

Local farmers, on the other hand, continue to see a steady increase in farm gate prices for several weeks already.

The average farm gate price of palay slightly went up by 0.1 percent to P16.72 per kilo.

It also picked up by 4.6 percent from the P15.99 per kilo year on year.