RP to reduce rice order owing to high price

Owing to the expensive price of rice given during a recent tender, Manila may choose to reduce the volume of the commodity that it would order from suppliers, the National Food Authority said. From the required 600,000 metric tons of rice, it may only award 500,000 to 520,000 MT of rice. “Judging from the price offers, we can only award about 500,000 to 520,000 metric tons," said Romeo Jimenez, National Food Authority (NFA) director. He added the government would be unable to buy the entire volume at the prices quoted by bidders during the most recent tender. Of the total volume, about 300,000 MT may be given to Vinafood 2, a supplier from Vietnam, while the remaining volume may be awarded to Thai suppliers. The government is also considering hiking budget allocation for the succeeding tenders. “We might increase the approved budget for the December bidding but there is no way we can change or augment the budget for the bidding next week," said Ludivico Jarina, NFA deputy administrator. Jarina, who is concurrently the chairman of the bids and awards committee, explained it will need another bid bulletin to change an approved budget since the agency will no longer have time for the bidding next week. Next week, the government is seeking to auction off another round of 600,00 MT of rice and the third set on December 15. Following a November 4 tender, about 250,000 MT of rice was awarded to Vinafood 2 and Daewoo Trading International. The Philippines may need to import as much as 2.5 million MT of the staple food for 2010. Some 1.3 million MT of palay was destroyed owing to recent typhoons. Meanwhile, rice stock by the government is equivalent to 31 days or 1.709 million MT based on the national average daily consumption of 35,400 MT. - GMANews.TV