RICE STOCK

• The October 1, 2004 total rice stock was 1.55 million metric tons good for 55 days supply. It surpassed last month’s level by 31.0 percent, but lower by 10.6 percent compared to the previous year’s level.
• Stocks in the household and commercial sector posted increments over their month ago levels by 59.6 and 37.5 percent, respectively. This was attributed to the good harvests in most areas in the latter part of September. However, NFA stocks dropped by 10.0 percent.
• Compared to their 2003 records, the NFA and commercial stocks went down by 38.2 and 9.7 percent, respectively. In contrast, stocks in the household went up by 10.4 percent. Around 313 thousand metric tons or 86.0 percent of NFA stocks are imported rice.
• More than half of the current total rice stocks came from the households, while a little over 20.0 percent each were with the NFA and commercial sector.

CORN STOCK

• The total corn stock as of October 1, 2004 was estimated at 424.9 thousand metric tons, higher than previous month and year ago levels by 26.3 and 31.6 percent, respectively.
• The household sector posted 39.5 and 56.0 percent stock increments over its month and year ago records. On the other hand, stocks in the commercial sector went down by 3.1 and 12.5 percent, respectively for the same reference periods.
• NFA reported no corn stock for the period.