Asian rice suppliers keep wooing RP

Asian rice suppliers keep wooing RP

MANILA (Reuter): Asian rice exporters continue to woo the Philippines which has embarked on a rice procurement program, officials at the Philippine Agriculture Department said yesterday.

The latest batch of prospective rice sellers to Manila include Malaysia, India and Pakistan, they said.

Malaysia and India had offered to supply up to 100,000 tons of rice each to the Philippines, a senior official at the department told Reuters.

Last week, Agriculture Secretary Salvador Escudero said the state-owned National Food Authority (NFA) was negotiating with two Pakistani rice suppliers to buy more rice.

Agriculture officials said the NFA was unlikely to tap the Indian rice market due to a "bad experience in the past".

The official did not elaborate but traders said supplies from India had not met quality standards. NFA had imported rice from India in the past two years.

President Fidel Ramos has authorized the NFA to import up to 650,000 tons of rice before the onset of the seasonally lean third quarter.

NFA has so far clinched deals for the supply of 205,000 tons of rice from Thailand. It has also signed separate contracts for the supply of 100,000 tons each from China and Vietnam, with an option to buy an additional 100,000 tons each from both countries.

Grains traders had earlier expressed doubts on China's capability to export such volumes to the Philippines, but officials of the Agriculture Department said the contract stipulated China could souce the commodity from Thailand, Vietnam and even Pakistan.

NFA deputy administrator Gregorio Tan said his department has kept all negotiations on the country's rice imports under wraps so as not to stir up prices in the region.

The NFA also denied any anomalies on its rice imports.

Earlier today, Tan denied in an interview with radio station DZRH that NFA bought "overpriced" rice from Vietnam in response to reports that Vietnam rice was being traded around $235 per ton FOB against the $291.50 C&F clinched by the NFA.

"Even if it's true that you can buy rice at $235 per ton FOB, you are not sure that you can bring out the rice because the Vietnamese rice market is a regulated market," Tan said.

Tan said the NFA signed a contract with Vietnam Food Corp at the time the price of Thai rice was trading at $304 to $310 per ton. The Thai rice market is used as a benchmark for Asian rice prices, he said.

NFA bought the Chinese rice at $291.50 per ton C&F and the Thai rice at $300 per ton C&F.

Tan said the NFA negotiated with a state-owned company of Vietnam to import rice to ensure immediate supply before July this year. "During the years between 1992 and 1995, private and provincial government units in Vietnam had inked export commitments with other countries but were unable to effect deliveries," he said.