MANILA -The country’s rice and corn inventory declined substantially in April this year as household and commercial sectors stored less of these staple Filipino grains, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed.
The statistics agency recorded rice stocks of 1.84 million metric tons (MT) as of April 1, lower by 26.5 percent than the 2.51 million MT in the same period last year, its latest report showed.
But on a monthly basis, this reflected an upward increment of 30.8 percent from 1.41 million MT on March 1.
All sectors—household, commercial and the National Food Authority (NFA) depositories—registered declines in their stockpile.
The household sector stored 1.02 million MT, a decrease of 26 percent. The commercial sector’s buffer shrank by 26.9 percent to 728,730 MT while that of NFA depositories sank by 27.1 percent to 99,030 MT.
Households account for more than half of rice stocks at 55.1 percent, followed by the commercial sector at 39.5 percent and NFA depositories, 5.4 percent.
Latest figures from the Bureau of Plant Industry showed that the Philippines procured 2 million MT of imported rice as of Aug. 3, with Vietnam accounting for almost 90 percent of the total.
READ: PH may import up to 500,000 MT rice to boost inventory — DA exec Panganiban
In Metro Manila, retail prices have increased. Local rice ranged from P41 to P62 per kilogram as of Thursday against P38 to P50 per kg a year ago, according to the Department of Agriculture’s price monitoring.
Imported rice retailed from P46 to P65 per kg compared to last year’s P38 to P50 per kg.
READ: DA: Sufficient rice supply amid price surge
Meanwhile, corn inventory sustained a downturn of 36.1 percent to 496,740 MT from 777,370 MT year-on-year.
However, this represented an expansion of 41.1 percent from 352,040 MT a month ago.
Corn kept in households dwindled by 42.8 percent to 102,880 MT while the commercial sector slashed its buffer by 34.1 percent to 393,850 MT.
About 79.3 percent of the corn stockpile came from the commercial sector and the remaining 20.7 percent from households.
Currently, the tariff rate for imported rice was at 35 percent both for in-quota and out-quota imports effective until Dec. 31 this year. INQ