Public food reserves come back into the policy agenda as a result of huge doubts on the reliability of international trade in the current new era of price instability. In addition to national food reserve, ASEAN countries are among the pioneer in establishing food reserve cooperation at the regional level. This study reviews ASEAN food reserve and trade in the cost and benefit framework. Although food reserve has contributed to the economic successes in the region, the operational cost for such policy is high. We show that regional cooperation through risk sharing can significantly reduce the fiscal costs of holding stocks. Moreover, ASEAN countries and their partners can consider to enlarge the cooperation by involving more countries.