NFA: Full warehouses limited 2025 palay purchases

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The National Food Authority (NFA) on Wednesday explained that it was unable to fully utilize its 2025 budget for palay (unhusked rice) procurement because its warehouses were already full.

The NFA made the statement after state auditors flagged the agency for falling short of its statutory buffer stock requirement, with 408,944 metric tons (MT) of rice in stock, equivalent to just 10.68 days of supply instead of the 15 days mandated under the amended Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).

The shortfall supposedly stemmed from procurement challenges in 2025, when the NFA met only 77% of its 545,000-MT purchasing target.

The Commission on Audit (COA) earlier raised concerns over the NFA's rice buffer stock and procurement performance.

According to NFA administrator Larry Lacson, the agency's 2025 buffer stock target remained at nine days because the amended RTL, which increased the requirement, was approved only after the agency's 2025 budget had already been finalized.

"First, the amended RTL was approved in December 2024. Before that, our mandated buffer stock was only nine days. By December 2024, the 2025 program and budget had already been finalized," Lacson said in an interview with Super Radyo dzBB.

"Our target for 2025 was still nine days because the change did not make it into the budget cycle. So for 2025, our target remained at nine days. In total, we achieved that—it was even more than 10 days," he added.

The NFA also said it had been aggressive in purchasing palay in 2024, leaving little to no space in its warehouses in 2025.

"Second, even if we wanted to spend all the funds allocated for procurement, our warehouses were full—completely full—because we were aggressive in 2024, buying more and more. Our buffer stock reached almost 13 days, which is why our warehouses were full in 2025," Lacson said.

The NFA had reportedly been allocated P14 billion in subsidies from 2024 to 2025 but was able to utilize only around P10 billion of this amount for palay procurement.

Lacson said the NFA had a total of P17 billion in funds available in 2024, including P8 billion carried over from the previous year. It spent P12 billion that year, leaving more than P4 billion for 2025.

"That's why in 2025, we were able to purchase a little over P10 billion worth of palay. That's still higher than the P9 billion annual budget provided for the year. We have to take into account that we were also using excess funds from 2023," he added.

As of September 18, the NFA projected its milled-rice stock at 278,444 MT, covering roughly seven days of national demand.

Between January and September 2026, the NFA bought 92,032 MT of palay at P27 to P30 per kilo and disbursed 207,648 MT of rice overall, including 126,737 MT allocated to its P20-per-kilo rice program and 28,983 MT in total releases.

Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture said a competitive auction of 39,597 MT of older rice generated roughly P1.1 billion and freed up storage space for newly harvested palay.— MCG, GMA News

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