The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported a decrease in the country's total rice stock inventory for March, coinciding with the onset of the El Niño peak.

The overall rice inventory declined by three percent to 1.37 million metric tons as of March 1, down from 1.41 million metric tons recorded during the same period last year.

The PSA also reported a 9.6 percent reduction in volume compared to February's level of 1.51 million metric tons.

A large dip of nearly 60 percent was observed in the National Food Authority's (NFA) rice buffer for March, while the household sector’s stock was down by 14.4 percent last month.

Despite the reduction factored by demand and the recent dry spell, commercial stocks for rice went up by 27.5 percent from last year’s period.

The PSA said that March showed commercial improvement from its previous decline in February 2024 at 19 percent.

Subsequently, February’s data for NFA depositories had a 12 percent decline, while the household supply was up by 1.4 percent during this period.

The largest contributor to the rice stock for March was allocated for households at 50.8 percent, followed by 46 percent from the commercial sector, and 3 percent from the NFA.

Department of Agriculture (DA) Spokesperson Arnel de Mesa recently reported that a price cap will not be feasible during this period since it might negatively affect the future.

Meanwhile, corn stocks had a positive uproar of its stock inventory, reaching a 55.4 percent annual increase from 352.04 thousand MT to 546.89 thousand MT.

In February, an 11.2 percent spike was also recorded from 491.77 thousand metric tons.

Corn showed no alarming decrease in the commercial sector with a 92.7 percent incline, however, household supply dropped by 44.4 percent.

Because of this, the commercial sector attributed 90.2 percent of March’s total corn stock, while only 9.8 percent were generated from the households.