Only Vietnam wants to sell rice to RP

The Philippines once again failed to attract enough offers to sell rice from eight invited nations through a government-to-government negotiation, with only Vietnam turning up to make an offer for an undisclosed volume.

In a G to G negotiation that was kept secret initially from media, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Department of Finance issued letters of invitation to China, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan, the United States, India and Korea to sell rice to the Philippines.

During the formal negotiations held yesterday at the Board of Investments building in Makati, only Vietnam made a formal offer.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap said the offer would have to be studied as the price quoted by Vietnam was higher than expected.

Yap said there is a seven-day “validity and we will take the opportunity to study the offer.” He said the Philippine government would talk to the Vietnamese government to “negotiate better terms and conditions.”

According to Yap, the additional rice that the Philippines is trying to secure is for “buffer stocking only.” He said the National Food Authority (NFA) has secured the 10 percent rice supply gap that the country needs this year. The NFA is trying to maintain a 30-day buffer stock, he added.

Yap said the government may opt to just do G to G negotiations to procure additional rice for the country even as the NFA would keep open its option to conduct more tenders for rice.

At the moment though, the NFA has not scheduled any tender after a failed bidding in May and after several private sector tenders that attracted very minimal bids.

The DA said domestic production is on target, with first quarter palay production hitting 7.1 million metric tons. According to Yap, there is enough rice and that the NFA would soon be releasing six million bags of rice to the market.

Rice prices in the country, Yap pointed out, are still lower compared to the prevailing price in other countries. He said the rice that will be released by the NFA will bring down the price to a more reasonable range of P35 to P37 per kilo.