NFA holds tender for 250,000-metric tons rice imports

MANILA, Philippines - The National Food Authority (NFA) held yesterday a rice tender for the importation of 250,000 metric tons of rice for arrival from January to April next year, getting bids 50 percent lower than the bids offered last year.

Yesterday’s tender is for the importation of the country’s partial rice requirements next year which may exceed two million metric tons, according to Agriculture officials.

A total of six bidders qualified in yesterday’s tender out of 14 participants, four of whom voluntarily bowed out while four others were disqualified due to non-compliance with technical requirements.

Total volume offered reached 800,000 MT with bids ranging from a high of $600/ MT to a low of $468/MT.

The six qualified bidders were Thai Hua Co. Ltd., Vietnam Southern Foods (Vinafoods), LG International Co., Daewoo International Corp., Topfer International and Asia Golden Rice.

Daewoo and Vinafoods offered the lowest. Daewoo’s lower best offer bid was $468/MT to a mandatory counter-trade bid of $478/MT for a total volume of 100,000 MT to be sourced from Thailand and Pakistan.

Vietnamese Vinafoods submitted a best offer of $480/MT and $487/MT mandatory counter-trade for a total volume of 250,000 MT.

The bids award committee (BAC) will evaluate the submitted bids and will award the winning bids next week.

It had been speculated that yesterday’s tender would likely result in a failed bidding following the imposition of a new requirement for a longer credit payment period of 270 days from the previous 180 to 190 days.

Following the successful tender, NFA Deputy Administrator Ludovico Jarina urged the Inter-agency Assessment Committee to fast-track its assessment of the country’s rice import requirement next year to take advantage of the prevailing low international market price.

Jarina attributed the low bids to the fact that most countries are currently harvesting their rice crops.

However, Jarina acknowledged that the low prices may last only for the rest of this year and may likely change next year in the face of India’s increased rice importation following a severe drought that hit the country.

India is holding its own tender for 30,000 MT on Monday Nov. 9.

Jarina speculated that the same bidders would participate in India’s tender and would thus, likely, bid at about the same level.

There are speculations that India’s import requirement may be double that of the Philippines.