NFA to hold rice auction for private sector next week

MANILA, Philippines- The National Food Authority is set to hold next week the auction for 141,440 metric tons of rice for the private sector. In a telephone interview, Thomas Escarez, NFA spokesman, said the volume to be sold was from the uncontracted rice in the original 163,000 metric tons of rice available for private groups and entities under the country specific quota. From the May 9 auction, only 25 groups participated and sought to import a total of 21,560 metric tons of rice. The country specific quota is a commitment of the Philippines with the World Trade Organization that required Manila to import certain volumes of rice from Thailand, India, China and Australia. Despite the cool reception given by the private sector on the first auction, Escarez said the NFA is doing the exercise as it “feels the need of the private sector to support its own grain supply requirement." Meanwhile, the auction for 200,000 metric tons of rice, which would allow private sector to import from any country, will be held in June. The importation of the private sector of rice will be free from any tariffs as the NFA would allow them to use the tax expenditure subsidy of the agency. In turn, the private sector will be paying NFA service fee for the use of its facility. - Cheryl Arcibal, GMANews.TV