The National Food Authority’s (NFA) 203,000-metric ton (MT) government-to-government (G2G) rice tender failed anew on Tuesday after the offers of Bangkok and Hanoi were rejected by the food agency as they were over its reference price.
The NFA declared a failure of bidding after both Thailand and Vietnam’s offers were higher than the agency’s $447.88-per-MT reference price. This was also the NFA’s reference price in the previous G2G, where Thailand and Vietnam did not participate due to concerns over the terms of reference.
Initial offer made by Thailand before 10 a.m. was at $480.5 per MT for the supply of 100,000 MT, while Vietnam’s bid was at $483 per MT for the 203,000 MT volume.
The two Southeast Asian nations made a reoffer before 12 noon, which were still way above the government’s reference price.
Vietnam slashed their initial $481.50 per MT bid with the same volume, while Bangkok maintained its earlier offer of $480.5 per MT.
NFA Assistant Administrator Mercedes G. Yacapin, who chairs the agency’s G2G committee, did not want to “speculate” or “preempt” why the bidders made such high bids during the second G2G tender held by the agency.
However, Yacapin explained that the NFA’s reference price was based on their study of the prevailing world market prices.
Yacapin said the results of the rebidding would be evaluated by the NFA and would also be submitted to the NFA Council for further actions. The NFAC is the food agency’s highest policy-making body.
“We will have to review first and make the determination after,” Yacapin said when asked if there is a probability that the G2G bidding would be canceled altogether.
Bangkok and Hanoi participated in Tuesday’s rice tender after the NFA made various changes to the TOR particularly to the delivery schedule, discharge ports, short delivery, short-landing and fumigation rules among others.
The NFA is also set to hold its open tender for the supply of 500,000 MT on November 20.