The National Food Authority (NFA) on Wednesday expressed confidence that bidders are unlikely to back out from the open tender for the supply of some 500,000 metric tons (MT) of rice via open tender, amid some traders’ concerns over import regulations.
Some 13 Asian firms have already signified interest to participate in the NFA’s open tender bidding after they bought bid documents priced at P75,000 each set.
However, some of the possible rice suppliers are worried about the changes in the terms of reference (TOR) for the open tender bidding during the prebidding conference on November 7.
At least two participants questioned why the NFA imposed a penalty on short-delivery and short-landed shipments with one seeking to delete the provision.
Others questioned the specified guidelines over fumigation, citing possible internal problems that would make it difficult for them to comply with the rules.
The concerns of the traders were also some of the worries of Hanoi and Bangkok during the 203,000 MT bidding via government-to-government mode on November 6. The concerns forced Vietnam and Thailand to shun the tender.
However, NFA Spokesman Angel G. Imperial Jr. said he doesn’t see private traders backing out of the race to supply the NFA with its buffer stock due to some questions over the TOR.
Imperial explained that the TOR used in the open tender is just the same with the previous ones and the NFA just specified some of the provisions for better language and understanding.
“We don’t think so,” Imperial said in an interview with reporters on Wednesday when asked if traders may not participate in the open tender just like what Bangkok and Hanoi did.
Furthermore, Imperial said, the NFA maintained that the TOR provisions are acceptable and doesn’t need any review to meet the demands of the traders.
“We cannot remove the provisions on the short-landed. We have to protect the interest of the government,” he said.
“There’s no tightening of regulations. We [are] just spelling out what they should do. Basically it is just the same TOR,” he added.
NFA OIC-Administrator Tomas R. Escarez told reporters that the food agency decided to impose penalty for short shipment, citing “abuse” by some suppliers.
“Before there was no penalty and we did not pay attention to it. But they abuse[d] the deliveries, wherein for example shipments lack 1,000 bags or 2,000 bags,” he said. “So, the tendency is that we expect this amount of inventory but it would not fully arrive.”
Furthermore, Escarez explained that the TOR has specified guidelines to ensure the food safety of the rice imports, particularly to avoid the issues of weevil infestation that happened in the past.