Philippines plans to import 800,000 tonnes of rice

The Philippines' planned importation of as much as 800,000 tonnes of rice will be undertaken via a government-to-government deal in a tender that may be held before the end of March, its farm minister said late on Friday. "It is the government that is importing and there will be a bidding," Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala told reporters. "I hope we can make a final decision (on the tender) before the end of the month."
Purchases by the Philippines, one of the world's biggest buyers of the grain, could support falling rice prices elsewhere in Asia, with Vietnam and Thailand likely to compete aggressively for any new deal. A rice trader in Vietnam has said the Philippines' state grains procurement agency, the National Food Authority (NFA), was expected to hold the tender as early as Monday, but NFA officials said nothing had been finalised as of Friday.
The NFA can buy rice from Vietnam, Thailand or Cambodia - the only three countries with which it has government-to-government supply agreements. "We will not import more than what is needed," Alcala said when asked whether a volume of 800,000 tonnes would be enough to meet the desired buffer stock and curb increases in local rice prices. The NFA aims to boost its buffer stock, which in February was below the mandatory 15-day requirement, before the lean cropping season from July to September, when the requirement is a minimum of 30 days of national consumption.
Since late January, the NFA has doubled the amount of rice it has been releasing into markets from stockpiles most days to curb increases in retail prices that have driven up food inflation. Rice prices in some local markets, including in Metro Manila, have started falling this week, Alcala said. The Philippines missed its end-2013 rice self-sufficiency and inventory targets following natural calamities including strong typhoons late last year.
As a result, the Southeast Asian country was forced to import 500,000 tonnes of the grain in a government-to-government deal in November with Vietnam, the world's No 2 rice exporter after India. The Philippines' overall rice stockpile fell 5.7 percent to 2.0 million tonnes as of February 1, good for 59 days of national usage, from 2.12 million tonnes at the start of the year, government data released on Monday showed.