THE National Food Authority (NFA) said its purchases of paddy rice soared in June on the back of a favorable harvest and its competitive buying price range.
The grains agency said it procured 807,691 50-kilo bags or 40,384 metric tons (MT) of palay in the reference month, more than double the 355,910 bags or 17,795.5 MT it bought last year.
With this, the NFA noted that it met its procurement target of 381,500 bags or 19,075 MT in June.
‘Increase in procurement compared to last month is mainly due to favorable harvest this cropping season, and the continuous implementation of the Council-approved Price Range Scheme [Pricers] for palay procurement activity,’ the NFA said.
Under the grains agency’s program, it buys clean and dry palay at P23 to P30 per kilo, while the price of fresh and wet palay ranges from P17 to P23 per kilo. Such a scheme changes weekly per province.
The NFA said it had a total expected milled rice inventory of 8.9 million bags or 445,459 MT at the end of June. It added that the grains agency’s stockpile accounts for 18.9 percent of the country’s national rice inventory.
Meanwhile, the agency said it distributed 60,252 bags or 3,012 MT of milled rice during the reference month, 13.6 percent of its target of 440,445 bags or 22,022.25 MT.
It allocated some 544 MT of rice to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Office of Civil Defense (OCD), legislators, and local governments for relief operations and calamity response.
About 1,314 MT of rice were distributed to government agencies and local government units’ (LGUs) rice requirement under the Executive Order 51 program, the NFA said.
Furthermore, around 1,126 MT have been distributed to LGUs under the food security emergency program, which was declared to expedite the release of rice stocks held by the NFA.
It added that some 27 MT of rice have been allotted for the auction or private institutions.
The NFA recently invited the public to participate in the tender for more than 1 million 50-kilo bags or 57,997 MT of aging rice stocks. (See: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2025/09/29/nfa-invites-bids-for-1-16-m-bags-of-aging-rice-stocks-worth-%e2%82%b11-6b/)
The agency has started issuing auction documents. The Central Office Auction Committee (COAC) will issue these documents until October 8, while documents from the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) Secretariat will be available until October 7.
Interested bidders are required to tender a 10-percent bond of the total price offer, which will be deducted from the overall payment of the winning bidder.
This year, the NFA aims to procure as much as 880,000 MT of palay to meet its new buffer stock requirement of 15 days as stipulated under the amended Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).