PHL secures 200,000 MT of rice from Vietnam

The Philippine government will import 200,000 metric tons (MT) of milled rice from Vietnam Southern Food Corp. at a price of $480 for each MT, the state grain agency said Wednesday. In a press briefing, National Food Authority (NFA) administrator Lito Banayo said the government secured the volume “before interest rates and freight costs increase." “If we would act later than now, freight charges would have gone up anew and also the landed cost [of goods]," Banayo said. The Philippines, one of the world’s biggest importers of rice, will be spending as much as P4.22 billion for the procurement of rice from Vietnam. The amount is lower than the P4.8 billion the NFA had pegged for such an acquisition, according to Banayo. He said the government will pay the supplier within 270 days after the first shipment arrives. “Procured rice from Vietnam will start arriving by April until June," Banayo said. The terms applied now were similar to the government-to-government transaction during the November-December 2009 tenders. The average buying price at the time was about $630 per MT. — JE, GMA News