4 Asian countries bid to supply rice to Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — Four Asian countries have expressed interest to supply the Philippines with 300,000 metric tons of rice under a government-to-government scheme, the first for the country since the industry was liberalized.

During Monday’s online G2G bidding, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and India submitted their bids for the supply of imported rice with 25 percent brokens to be delivered to five ports until Aug. 14.

The government, through the Philippine International Trading Corp., has set aside P7.45 billion for the procurement.

Reference price was set at $497.62 per MT for all the five lots in Manila, Cebu, Tacloban, Zamboanga and Davao.

The first 150,000 MT shall be delivered not later than July 14 while the remaining shall be shipped in not later than Aug. 14.

For the first lot in Manila at 174,000 MT, Myanmar Rice Federation has the lowest bid at $489.25 per MT. However, it only bidded for 33,000 MT of rice.

Vietnam Northern Food Corp. (Vinafood 1), offered a higher price of $530 per MT for a total of 129,000 MT.

Thailand’s Department of Foreign Trade had the highest bid at $541 per MT but it offered to buy all the volume in the Manila lot.

To proceed with the bidding, Vietnam and Thailand need to match Myanmar’s offer.

For the second lot in Cebu at 42,000 MT, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. has the lowest bid at $484.70 for the entire volume.

Myanmar’s bid was at $494.25 per MT while Vietnam at $530.

For the Tacloban lot at 15,000 MT, India also had the lowest bid at $485.70 versus Vietnam’s $530. However, India only offered to supply half of the volume.

For Zamboanga at 24,000 MT, India also offered the lowest at $484.70, outbidding Vietnam’s $530.

For lot 5 in Davao at 45,000 MT, India still had the lowest bid at $485.70 for half of the volume. Vietnam needs to lower its earlier bid of $497.30 to match and supply the remaining.

The PITC has yet to declare a successful bidding for the Philippines’ first G2G importation since the enactment of the Rice Tariffication Law.

Local farmers have been questioning the government’s move to proceed with the G2G saying this may have no enough legal basis as the RTL only allows importation in an event of a rice shortage which the Department of Agriculture has repeatedly denied, saying supply of the main staple is enough.