After two failed biddings, Manila has successfully secured a supply contract with Thailand and Vietnam for the importation of 203,000 metric tons (MT) of rice to further beef up the government’s stockpile.
The National Food Authority (NFA) on Wednesday accepted the bid offers of Thailand and Vietnam for the import contract as they were below the agency’s reference price.
This was the third bidding conducted by the NFA via government-to-government (G2G) mode, with the first one failing as the two countries opted not to participate, while the offers in the previous tender were above the government’s ceiling price.
“We are extremely happy [with the results of the bidding] because, like I said in [my] earlier message, I hope this bidding will bring us tears and good tidings. And it did,” NFA Assistant Administrator and G2G Committee Chairman Mercedes G. Yacapin said.
“And we are even happier [as] they said they will be able to bring in the shipment not later than December 15,” Yacapin added.
Thailand is set to supply the country with 80,000 MT, while Vietnam would export some 123,000 MT before the year ends.
For the third G2G rice importation bidding, the NFA hiked its reference price to $470 per MT compared to the previous ceiling prices of $467 per MT and $428.18 per MT in the first tender.
Vietnam made the first offer at $470 per MT for the supply of 170,000 MT.
However, Thailand pitched to supply the government with rice priced at $469.80 per MT.
But Thailand only offered to supply 80,000 MT of the 203,000 MT with 10,000 MT arriving before December 15 and the remaining volume to be shipped not later than December 31.
Vietnam was asked by the NFA to match the price offer of Thailand for the supply of the remaining 123,000 MT and it did. Thailand’s total bid amounted to $37.584 million, while Vietnam’s reached $57.785 million.
The NFA was able to save some $41,000 as it allotted $95.41 million for the 203,000 MT rice importation.
The country’s total rice imports this year, including the volume that would be brought in by private traders via the minimum access volume, would hit at least 2.055 million MT. The NFA would account for around 1.25 million MT of the total volume.
The volume is expected to increase further as it does not include imports by supermarkets through the Department of Trade and Industry’s rice importation program, which has a 350,000-MT allocation and the additional volume to be brought in by the private sector via out quota.