NFA gets 272 bids from farmers' groups

MANILA, Philippines - The National Food Authority (NFA) has received 272 bids from farmers’ groups for import rights of 190,000 metric tons (MT) of rice yesterday.

“272 cooperatives submitted bids for the 190,000 MT rice imports,” Gilberto Lauengco, special assistant to the NFA administrator said in a telephone interview yesterday.

As of press time, the NFA was still checking the bids submitted by the 272 cooperatives.

Each cooperative is allowed to bid for a minimum volume of 500 MT rice imports and a maximum of 2,000 MT.

Cooperatives that will be awarded import rights can bring the rice shipments to the country at zero tariff in exchange for service fees to be paid to the NFA.

The service fee has been set at a minimum floor price of P2 per kilogram (kg) of rice or P100 per bag of 50 kg of rice.

The country intends to import 500,000 MT of rice this year.

Of the volume of rice imports set for this year, 380,000 MT will be brought in the country by farmers’ groups and private firms, while the remaining 120,000 MT may be purchased through a government-to-government deal.

At last week’s tender for import rights of 190,000 MT of rice, the NFA had prequalified 102 firms to bring in the rice shipments to the country.

Of the 102 prequalified firms, the NFA said only 19 with the highest bids are likely to be given the permit to import a maximum of 10,000 MT of rice.

Lauengco said the NFA was still evaluating the bids of the prequalified firms.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala had said the government is looking to purchase rice imports under a government-to-government deal either from Vietnam or Cambodia.

The country has an existing rice supply agreement with Vietnam, but it has yet to sign a memorandum of agreement with Cambodia.

NFA administrator Angelito Banayo said the government can only make a decision on whether to pursue the plan to purchase rice under a government-to-government arrangement after the import rights for the 380,000 MT of rice has been given to farmers’ groups and private firms.

The NFA said earlier that all duty-free rice imports would have to be in the country by end-June or before the lean months.

The country is reducing its rice imports as it seeks to be self-sufficient in the staple by the end of 2013.

Last year, the country cut its rice imports to 860,000 MT from the 2.45 million MT shipped in 2010.

Agriculture assistant secretary Dante Delima said earlier the country could even slash its rice imports further to 100,000 MT next year, if the 18.46 million MT rice output target is achieved this year.

Rice produced by the country last year reached 16.68 million MT.