The Philippines experienced a fall in rice stock inventory in December, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.

Based on their latest figures, the state’s total rice stock inventory as of 1 December 2023 was estimated at 1.90 million metric tons, 25.2 percent below the 2.53 million metric tons inventory in the same period of 2022.

“Month-on-month, the volume of rice stocks inventory recorded a decrement of 4.2 percent from the previous month's inventory of 1.98 million metric tons,” the report read.

Rice stock in all sectors during the said month declined. Depositories of the National Food Authority dropped to 54.4 percent. The household sector was down by 33.2 percent, and the commercial sector shrunk by 8.7 percent.

In the 1,895.078 rice stock metric tons, households had the biggest volume of 986.78 (52.1 percent), followed by the commercial sector with 851.88 (44.9 percent), and NFA with 57.13 metric tons (3.0 percent).

“In comparison to the November 2023 rice stocks levels, month-on-month decreases were noted in rice stocks inventories in the commercial sector by 5.5 percent, NFA depositories by 5.1 percent, and in the household sector by 3.0 percent,” they added.

Corn stock increase

Meanwhile, total corn stock inventory showed a 51.1 percent increase after being registered at 685.89 thousand metric tons as of 1 December 2023, compared to 454.03 metric tons in the same period in 2022.

“From the same month of the previous year's level, corn stock inventories in the commercial and household sectors recorded annual increases of 51.4 percent and 49.4 percent, respectively,” the report said. “Relative to the inventory level in November 2023, the volume of corn stocks in the commercial sector registered a month-on-month decrease of 17.4 percent. Meanwhile, corn stocks in the household sector grew by 28.1 percent.”

In the 685.89 corn stock metric tons, the commercial sector had the biggest volume of 568.01 (82.8 percent), followed by the household sector with 117.88 (17.2 percent).