The National Food Authority (NFA) said it shored-up its rice inventory level to nearly 7.17 million 50-kilogram bags, the highest since 2020 and sufficient to feed the entire Filipino population for nine days.
The agency attributed this to higher palay procurement price, which averaged P27 per kilogram last year and around P24 this year.
Despite the increased stockpile, NFA administrator Larry Lacson assured local rice farmers that the agency has sufficient funds to procure more palay.
“So far this year, we’ve spent only P2.6 billion of the P14.6 billion allocated for palay procurement. This includes P5.6 billion in unspent funds carried over from the 2024 budget,” Lacson said.
He said the NFA could still purchase around 500,000 metric tons of palay—equivalent to about 6.3 million bags of milled rice.
Under the revised Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), the NFA is required to maintain a 15-day national rice buffer stock, up from the previous nine-day requirement.
As mandated, all the rice reserve should be sourced from local farmers to support the domestic agricultural sector.
The NFA said to accommodate the larger stockpile, it is upgrading its storage infrastructure, including warehouses and handling facilities, to hold up to 555,000 metric tons of milled rice, or 880,000 metric tons of palay.
When the RTL was implemented in 2019, the NFA’s buffer stock stood at just over 492,000 metric tons, mainly imported rice.
The agency’s role has also evolved under the RTL as it is no longer permitted to sell rice directly to the public, except for “aging stocks”, or milled rice that has been stored for at least two months after processing.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. said the current reserves enable the government to support vulnerable communities, potentially offering rice at prices even lower than the P29 per kilogram.
“We continue to explore ways to better manage the NFA’s aging rice stocks, while ensuring that the most disadvantaged Filipinos receive the assistance they need,” Tiu Laurel said.
