Dec. rice inventory down but still enough for 87-day consumption

The country’s rice inventory in December declined from month-ago and year-ago levels, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.

But consumers need not worry as the available stocks were still adequate to cover Filipinos’ rice requirement for 87 days—enough until March.

From 3.16 million metric tons (MT) of rice recorded from households, commercial warehouses and depositories of the National Food Authority (NFA) in November, the PSA reported that rice stocks declined by 11 percent to 2.77 million MT in December.

Compared to stocks from a year ago, this was lower by 12 percent.

All sectors also recorded decrements in rice stocks. Most of the inventory or 59 percent was kept in households, while 29 percent was recorded in commercial warehouses.

The rest or 13 percent was in NFA depositories, including local palay that has been procured and milled by the agency.

Unlike other agricultural commodities, prices of the staple continued to go down.

As of the third week of December, regular milled and well-milled rice were being sold at an average of P36.17 and P40.93 a kilo, respectively. INQ