NFA reopens tender for 250,000 MT rice

MANILA, Philippines — After a failed bidding last week, state-run National Food Authority (NFA) is reopening the tender for 250,000 metric tons (MT) of rice as the grain agency is still in need of an immediate replenishment of buffer stocks.

Following consultation with the Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC), the NFA has set on May 4 the reopening of offers from Thailand and Vietnam for the supply contract of imported rice.

“We would have wanted to do this earlier, but representatives of the two supplier countries asked for time to prepare the necessary documentation and consultation with their respective authorities,” NFA administrator Jason Aquino said.

“Today (Monday) and tomorrow (Tuesday) are holidays in Vietnam, hence they asked for at least two days to handle their documentation and coordination requirements,” he said.

The new tender set on Friday will still use the same terms of reference already published by the NFA.

However, the reference price will be computed anew based on the prevailing world market price a day before the opening of price offers and in consideration of the prevailing peso-dollar exchange rate during the same period.

“We are optimistic that we will already succeed in the second round of bidding for the 250,000 MT NFA rice imports,” Aquino said.

Meanwhile, the NFA has also adjusted the arrival periods for the delivery schedules of the imported rice to give suppliers ample time to comply.

For the new tender, the arrival of 100,000 MT 25 percent broken rice will be set not later than May 31; another 100,000 MT 25 percent broken rice will have to arrive  not later than June 15; and the 50,000 MT 15 percent broken rice must arrive in the country not later than June 30.

The bidding last week failed due to the higher prices offered by both exporters, which are way above reference price set by the NFA.

The NFA’s reference price was set at $483.63 per MT for the 50,000 MT of 15 percent broken grains and $474.18 per MT for the 200,000 MT of 25 percent broken grains.

The two rounds of offers both yielded the same result of a much higher offers by Thailand and Vietnam, resulting in a failure of bidding.

Records showed that this is not the first time that the world market prices for rice rose beyond $500 per MT level.

In 2011 to 2013, world market prices ranged from $510 to $567 per MT for the 15 percent broken and from $502 to $560 per MT for the 25 percent broken.

While NFA has been beefing up its local procurement, NFA’s buffer stock remains good for less than one day or below 100,000 bags of rice.

NFA’s inventory remains below its mandated 15-day buffer stock since late last year.