Two firms bag contracts to supply imported rice to NFA

International trading company Louis Dreyfuss and Vietnam trading agency Vina Foods bagged yesterday the contracts to supply a total of 90,000 metric tons of imported rice to the National Food Authority (NFA).

This forms part of the 131,000 metric tons of rice imports which the NFA will be bringing in under the minimum access import volume (MAV) mechanism. The NFA is expected to import this year a total of 300,000 to 350,000 tons of rice, of which 59,000 tons will be on loan from the US under the latter's Public Law 480 commodity loan program and 100,000 tons from Thailand under a countertrade agreement which has yet to be finalized.

The NFA bid out yesterday the supply contracts for 90,000 metric tons of imported rice. Vina Foods got the bulk of 65,000 tons via a winning bid of $216.13 per metric ton FOW (free up to the warehouse) while the balance went to Louis Dreyfuss which bid $196.10 per ton (CNF) cost and freight only).

NFA officials said they have no decision yet as to who will get the balance of 41,000 tons. There is word that the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) has expressed interest to supply the balance.

In another development, Agriculture Secretary Edgardo Angara said he may request for the realignment of the 2000 budget of the Department of Agriculture so that a large part will go to Mindanao.

One-third of the P20.8 billion budget of the DA this year is being earmarked for Mindanao. The amount may increase depending on the needs of the region.

The secretary also instructed the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), and other attached agencies and bureaus to pour its resources into Mindanao to uplift the agriculture and fisheries sector in the 24 provinces and 10 cities in Southern Philippines.

The realignment of the DA 2000 budget, according to Angara, will be based on the needs of a certain agency and will consider past performance to ensure that the budget will be spent for projects that will have immediate impact on farmers and fisherfolk.

For NIA alone, 20 percent of its budget or P1.2 billion will be poured in Mindanao. NIA Administrator Manuel Arevalo said the amount will be used for the construction of new irrigation systems and the repair of existing ones in the South.

Arevalo added that the amount will be able to irrigate more or less 12,000 hectares of farmlands or half of the 2000 target of NIA.