THE National Food Authority (NFA) raised its selling price for milled rice by P2 per kilo to trim the losses it incurred from selling the staple below prevailing market prices.
NFA Administrator Larry Lacson confirmed to the BusinessMirror that the grains agency increased its selling price to P35 per kilo from P33 per kilo, which took effect last August 15.
“This would trim our losses. Also, our selling price is already too low compared to the market [prices],” Lacson told this newspaper.
The newly approved selling price covers milled rice sold to local governments (LGUs), government agencies, and the Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) for the P20 rice program.
The price only differs for aging rice stocks or those stored in warehouses for more than three months, which is sold at P32 per kilo.
Latest figures from the grains agency showed that it has distributed 207,648 metric tons (MT) of rice from January to September, of which 126,737 MT went to the P20 rice program.
Earlier this year, the NFA and FTI formalized a new Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), which covered funding and supply commitments for the cheaper rice program for 2026.
The MOA outlined the procurement of about 1.8 million 50-kilogram sacks of well-milled rice, backed by a P3 billion budget, which formed part of the P10 billion Rice-for-All program under the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) budget.
The P20 per kilo program, launched in May 2025, stipulates that FTI serves as a procuring entity, while the NFA will supply rice stocks under a negotiated agency-to-agency framework to expedite implementation.
With rice stocks released into the market, the DA previously noted that revenues were reinvested into further palay purchases, thus creating a continuous procurement cycle.
The steady turnover also frees up space in the grain agency’s warehouses, enabling the NFA to purchase more unmiled rice from farmers, particularly during peak harvest periods when prices are most vulnerable, it added.
At present, the NFA purchases wet palay at P22 per kilo and dry palay at P27 per kilo, adding that it can purchase up to 500,000 MT of paddy rice in the wet season harvest.
The grains agency said its expected milled-rice inventory as of mid-September stood at 278,444 MT, which can feed Filipinos for seven days.
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