Boost in PH rice stock expected in October, DA exec says

An official from the Department of Agriculture (DA) on Tuesday said that the country's rice stock is expected to go up to 74 days due to the expected harvest of 1.9 million metric tons this month.

“So for September, of course it’s already done. For October, as I’ve mentioned, we are expecting almost 1.9 million metric tons of rice for this month,” DA - Bureau of Plant Industry Director Glenn Panganiban said in a Palace briefing.

“So that will jump our days-to-last or our supply of rice to 74 days, it increased from 52 last September. So, because we are expecting a more bumper harvest for coming October and November, the public can expect that we will have a stable supply of our main staple,” he added.

The DA earlier said that rice and palay prices would stabilize as farmers begin to harvest their main season crop in September and October.

It said that they are targeting an initial harvest of 5 million metric tons (MMT)
Based on the Philippine Rice Information System (PRiSM) estimates as of August 14, the initial palay harvest was expected to reach 2 MMT by the end of September and 3 MMT in October, totaling 5 MMT. —VAL, GMA Integrated News