The National Food Authority (NFA) is planning to use bigger “tonner” bags in storing rice and palay across its warehouses, aiming to improve efficiency in manpower, storage, and handling.
NFA administrator Larry Lacson said the tonner bag system, which was tested in three sites last year, will now be rolled out nationwide. Each branch is instructed to set aside one warehouse to implement the new system.
A tonner bag, made of high-strength polypropylene or polyethylene, can hold the equivalent of about 20 regular 50-kg rice bags. Using these larger bags reduces manual handling, cuts travel distances for workers, and allows denser, stackable storage that also makes it easier to separate rice varieties.
Early results show time savings: unloading 100 tonner bags takes 1.06 hours, compared to 1.35 hours for the same volume in conventional 50-kg bags. For milling, a six-wheeler truck can carry 22 tonner bags, equivalent to 264 standard bags.
The NFA plans to support the shift by acquiring gantry systems and forklifts, targeting nearly all of its 45 branches to adopt the system by June 2028. However, Lacson noted that the project’s success depends partly on funds from auctions of aging rice stocks, as it currently has no dedicated budget.
