Manila buys 400,000 tonnes rice

The Philippines bought 400,000 tonnes of rice, mostly from Vietnam, and the government said on Sunday the country needs to import even more to fill a projected shortfall caused in part by poor weather. The latest purchase bought to 800,000 tonnes the total volume bought by one of Asia's largest rice buyers since the start of the year. Gregorio Tan, administrator of state trading firm National Food Authority (NFA), said the government bought 400,000 tonnes of non-iron fortified rice late on Friday.
"We rejected last week's offers for the supply of 100,000 tonnes iron-fortified rice due to high prices," Tan told Reuters by phone.
He said the government may seek additional offers in the next few weeks.
The NFA, the government's rice-importing arm, said last week it also allocated a quota of 200,000 tonnes to farmers' groups and private firms to buy rice.
Officials have said the country needs to import between 1.1 million to 1.6 million tonnes of the grain this year to meet expected demand, compared with imports of 985,000 tonnes in 2004.
The higher import estimate for 2005 was due to delays in replanting rice land that was damaged by four storms in November and December.
The government also took into account the impact of the El Nino weather pattern, the rise in the price of imported fertiliser and increased domestic demand for rice due to higher costs of bread and corn.
The NFA said that of 400,000 tonnes of non-iron fortified rice it bought on Friday for April/May delivery, 350,000 tonnes will come from Vietnam.
Officials said the Philippines bought 250,000 tonnes of 25-percent broken rice variety from Vietnamese suppliers at $284.47 per tonne, including cost and freight.
Trading firms Noble Grain and Thai Maparn Trading Company Ltd won contracts to supply 25,000 tonnes each of the same variety of rice at $284.35 per tonne and $283.91 per tonne, respectively. Both firms have said they would source the rice from Thailand.
The Philippines also bought 100,000 tonnes of 15-percent broken rice variety at $293.47 per tonne from Vietnamese suppliers.