A. Rice Stock

• The total rice stock inventory as of September 1, 2003 was estimated at 1.41 million metric tons, lower than previous month’s level by 10.0 percent but 16.9  percent  higher  compared  to that of last year. It is good for 54 days national rice requirement.
• Stock position in all sectors dropped compared to their month ago levels ranging from 5 to 15 percent.
• Compared to previous year’s same month stock position, all sectors posted higher stock levels. The NFA holdings registered a 32.8 percent increase with inflows from domestic procurement and imports. Around 78.0 percent of the agency’s rice stock are imported.
• Of the current rice stocks 35.0 percent are with the households while 24.0 and 41.0 percent are with the NFA depositories and commercial warehouses, respectively.

B. Corn Stock

• The September 1, 2003 national corn stock amounted to 303.2 thousand metric tons. This was a hefty 86.7 percent increase over its month ago level. Likewise, compared to last year’s level it was 25.8 percent higher.
• Corn stocks in the households went up by 155.9 percent from last month’s stock level and 32.6 percent same month in 2002. The increase in stock was attributed to the inflow of harvest in the last week of August. Commercial warehouses also posted a 25.7 and 15.2 percent hike in their corn stock position over that of last month and last year’s same period level, respectively.
• NFA reported no corn stock for the period.