THE country’s rice inventory declined in August from a year earlier and the previous month, while corn stocks remained higher year-on-year, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Total rice stocks stood at 2.18 million metric tons (MT) as of Aug. 1, down 6.3 percent from 2.32 million MT a year earlier.
The inventory was also 13.3 percent lower than the 2.51 million MT in July.
Year-on-year, rice stocks held in National Food Authority ( A) depositories plunged 32.2 percent, while household inventories slipped 0.3 percent.
Commercial stocks, however, edged up 0.2 percent.
Compared with July, rice inventories declined across all sources. Household stocks dropped 14.6 percent, commercial inventories fell 13.7 percent, and A stocks decreased 7.9 percent.
Meanwhile, corn inventory reached 829,300 MT as of Aug. 1, surging 40.4 percent from 590,720 MT a year earlier.
Corn stocks, however, slipped 0.8 percent from 836,220 MT in July.
Compared with a year earlier, household corn inventories increased 46.5 percent, while commercial stocks rose 39.4 percent.
On a month-on-month basis, commercial corn stocks declined 3.1 percent, while household inventories increased 16.2 percent.
The commercial sector accounted for 86.1 percent of total corn stocks in August, with households holding the remaining 13.9 percent.
