The National Food Authority (NFA) said its rice buffer stock for the country has reached its highest level in five years, equivalent to 9.36 days of supply needed by the entire country.
The current buffer stock, equivalent to 7.17 million 50-kg bags of milled rice, is the agency’s highest inventory level since the end of 2020, the NFA said yesterday.
Such volume, as recorded on April 11, 2025, would be enough to feed the entire country for 9.36 days, the NFA said. The rice buffer stock was achieved due to the NFA’s higher palay buying price that averaged at P27 per kg in 2024, and about P24 per kg this year, the NFA said.
Based on available data from the NFA, its average inventory as of end-December 2020 was at 6.57 million 50-kg bags, good for 9.93 days. This fell to an average of seven days in 2021, 4.18 days in 2022, and eight days in 2024. Data for the year 2023 was not yet available as of press time.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the current level of rice reserves has empowered the government to support vulnerable communities, potentially at prices even lower than the P29-per-kg subsidized rice sold in government-run programs.
“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.
Meanwhile, despite achieving a 9.36-day sufficiency, NFA Administrator Larry Lacson has assured local rice farmers that the agency still has ample funds to procure about 500,000 metric tons (Mt) of palay equivalent to about 6.3 million bags of milled rice.
“So far this year, we’ve spent only P2.6 billion of the P14.6 billion available to us for palay procurement. This includes unspent funds of P5.6 billion carried over from the 2024 budget,” Lacson explained.
Under the revised Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), the NFA is now mandated to maintain a 15-day national rice buffer stock, up from the previous nine-day requirement, which must all be sourced from local farmers.
However, Lacson said in an earlier briefing in Malacañang, the NFA should get an additional P8 billion to raise its current rice buffer stock to 15 days by the next wet harvest season.
He said then such an amount was necessary but emphasized that pricing could be “flexible” and could be raised or lowered, adding that the NFA would only request for more funding if an actual need arose.
NFA said it has been upgrading its storage infrastructure, including warehouses and handling facilities to accommodate a higher stockpile of 555,000 MT of rice, or 880,000 MT of palay.
It added that when the RTL was first implemented in 2019, NFA held buffer stocks equivalent to only over 492,000 Mt, which were mostly imported rice.
However, the NFA said its role has significantly changed under the RTL as it can no longer sell rice directly to the public. Its current mandate limits public sales to aging stocks or milled rice that has been stored for at least two months since processing.
Based on the DA’s monitoring of public markets in the National Capital Region, local well-milled rice sold for P38 to P54 per kg on Monday, April 21, while regular milled rice went for P32 to P48 per kg.
Imported well-milled rice was selling for P42 to P46 per kg while the price of imported regular milled rice ranged from P35 to P42 per kg.
Special-variety
Imported rice fetched P55 to P60 and premium rice, P44 to P55.
Special-variety local rice was selling for P50 to P65 per kg, while premium rice went for P44 to P62 per kg. – J. Macapagal
