Winners in bid to import rice out by Friday – NFA

The National Food Authority (NFAcan bare on Friday the list of winning bidders for the 600,000 metric tons (MT) of rice allocated this year to private importers. In a text message to reporters Wednesday, NFA bids and awards committee member Gilbert Lauengco said the agency is only waiting for the Securities and Exchange Commission to release its findings on the motion for reconsideration filed by some disqualified bidders. The validation results could come out by Thursday afternoon, he added. The committee allowed some 13 disqualified bidders, who lacked documentary requirements, to file a motion for reconsideration after last week’s tender offer among importers. About 35 bidders qualified to ship a consolidated volume of 693,748 MT of rice. Bids for Luzon ports comprised the bulk of 394,738 MT, while bids for the ports in Visayas and Mindanao accounted for a combined volume of 299,000 MT. Lauengco said the NFA will only give 30 bidders the right to import 20,000 MT each of the commodity. The agency thought of awarding 18 of the winning bids to importers from Luzon, and the remaining 12 to importers from Visayas and Mindanao. The government has given the private sector the right to import bulk of the country’s 860,000-MT rice import allocation for 2011. Two weeks ago, an NFA official who refused to be named said the private sector might find such an import allocation "too big." Lita Mariano, spokesperson of the rice watchdog Bantay Bigas, earlier blasted the government for “entrusting" the country’s food security to the private sector, the primary concern of which was supposedly wider profit margins. In January, President Benigno Aquino III raised suspicions that last year’s private sector-financed rice importations benefited just one person or group. The NFA instituted the bidding system in February, replacing the first-come, first-served system that supposedly spawned collusions between private rice importers and NFA insiders. — PE/VS, GMA News