Rice inventory up as of June — report

THE COUNTRY’S rice inventory at the start of June this year was up by 25% from the same month last year, data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) show.

Rice stocks increased to 3.36 million metric tons (MT) as of June 1 from 2.68 million MT for the same period last year. The count was also slightly higher than May 1’s inventory of 3.32 million MT, the bureau said.

Of the 3.36 million MT, 29% is in households, 14% in commercial warehouses and 57% is in depositories of the National Food Authority (NFA), based on the government data.

Stock in NFA warehouses, of which 84% is imported rice, rose by 54% to 1.926 million MT as of June 1 from 1.25 million MT for the same period last year. “Rice stocks in our NFA warehouses would be good to supply the country’s daily needs of 36,400 MT for 58 days,” NFA spokesman Rex C. Estoperez told BusinessWorld in a telephone interview. He added that the bulk of the stock is due to the rice imports that have already arrived.

The Philippines has ordered 2.45 million MT of rice for this year, 2.25 million MT of which were to be shipped in tranches until June, and the remainder is being brought in by private firms until Sept. 15.

Meanwhile, corn inventory as of June 1 decreased by 19% to 149,500 MT from 183,800 MT last year.

Of the 149,500 MT, 33,000 MT or 22% is in households, 80,000 MT or 54% is in commercial warehouses and 36,500 MT or 24% is in NFA depositories, the bureau’s data showed.

Corn production dropped by 16.8% to 1.6 million MT for the first quarter of 2010 from 1.92 million MT last year due to El Niño.

Production was projected to decrease in the second quarter by 37% to 820,000 MT from 1.3 million MT for the same period last year, based on the agriculture department’s first-quarter report. Moreover, the DA projects a 6% decrease in corn production for the third quarter to 2.22 million MT from 2.37 million MT during the same period last year. — Kathleen A. Martin, Businessworld