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.