Costa Rica postpones rice purchase until next month

Costa Rica's National Rice Corporation on Thursday postponed a purchase for US rough rice until next month because bidding prices in a tender were too high, an official said. "The prices exceeded our expectations," said Oscar Campos, a board member of the corporation, which is known as Conarroz.
Conarroz, Costa Rica's rice import monopoly, took several bids in a tender to import 122,610 tonnes of US rough rice but declined to accept any of them. Campos said domestic stock levels were high enough in Costa Rica to delay the purchase and that bidding would reopen in two or three weeks. Conarroz periodically buys rice on international markets to sell in Costa Rica to cover shortfalls in the Central American country's domestic production. Costa Rica produces only half the rice it consumes.