Philippines to import 187,000 tonnes of rice

The rice stock specified under the tender is 10-per cent long grain white rice with 25-per cent broken. This volume will serve as part of the Philippines’ buffer stock for the lean months of July to September and as contingency stocks during natural or man-made calamities, NFA Administrator Orlan Calayag said.

Asean countries with an agreement for supplying rice to the Philippines were invited to submit sealed offers and quotations, but only Thailand and Vietnam joined the tender last April 3.

Thailand, through its Department of Foreign Trade, offered a price of US$568 (Bt16,700) per metric tonne, with a minimum offered volume of 100,000 tonnes to a maximum of 187,000 tonnes. For its part, Vietnam Southern Food Corp (Vinafood II) offered $459.75 per tonne for the total maximum volume.

Vietnam’s offer was lower by $108.25 a tonne and was even lower than the NFA’s 2012 rice-import cost of $470.70 per metric tonne.

Calayag said under the cost insurance in freight-deliver duty unpaid (CIF-DDU) terms, rice would be delivered “on a door-to-door basis”. NFA said this would eliminate its exposure to losses due to short-landing, spillage and demurrage. 

 “With this set up, the NFA will only be paying for what is received and accepted at designated warehouses. Whatever losses incurred for short-landed cargo, including bad order cargoes, will not be shouldered by the NFA,” the official said.

The Philippines was expected to reach food sufficiency after 2013 and would focus on further farm reforms to boost agri-business and agri-tourism, according to Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala. This would not only create value-added output for the domestic economy but also make economic expansion more “inclusive” in the sense that farmers could earn beyond merely selling fresh produce, he said.