Local company wins tender to import 75,000 tons of rice
JAKARTA (JP): Local firm PT Aramanjaya Perkasanusa has won the tender to import a total of 75,000 tons of rice for September- October deliveries, the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) announced on Thursday.
Bulog said Aramanjaya would deliver three shipments of 25 percent broken rice from China -- 25,000 tons in each delivery -- at prices of US$195, $200 and $205 per metric ton on a cost-and- freight (C&F) basis.
The company would ship 25,000 tons of Chinese rice in September at prices of $195 per metric ton, 25,000 tons in October at $200 per metric ton and another 25,000 tons in October at $205 per metric ton.
Rama Tejakusuma, the vice chairman of the tendering committee, said prices offered by Aramanjaya were the lowest prices offered in the tender.
He said Bulog would use a $126 million loan provided by the Islamic Development Bank to procure the rice.
The selection tender started last Tuesday, when tenders submitted by 21 local and foreign companies were scrutinized by a Bulog team. All tenders had to include a number of documents, including bank references and in the case of foreign firms, letters from the relevant embassies.
Nineteen companies, half of which were foreign-based firms, managed on Wednesday to pass the final stage of the tender, in which bidders put forward their prices and shipment proposals.
The lowest price was $195 per metric ton offered by Aramanjaya, while the highest price was $249.8 per ton for 20,000 tons of Pakistani rice offered by March Rich Agriculture
The 19 companies' bidding prices were put forward to Bulog chief Rahardi Ramelan, who made the final decision.
Some traders questioned the low price, saying that it sparked suspicions that the Chinese rice offered in the tender could come from old stocks.
They said C&F prices for new crops, which Bulog required in the tender, were currently selling at $220 per metric ton.
"It seems that cheapest prices, not quality, is all that matters to Bulog," a Singapore-based trader told The Jakarta Post.
Aramanjaya's director M.A Widianto denied the allegation that the rice his company offered was of low quality.
"We can get the cheaper prices because our supplier is engaged in contracts to supply rice in large quantities. That's why we can get lower prices," he said on the sidelines of the tender.
It was the third open tender process held by Bulog since 1998, and the first in the current 1999/2000 fiscal year. The agency bought 526,000 tons of rice from eight firms in a competitive bidding process in September last year.
Bulog last bought 277,000 tons of Pakistani rice in a tender last December at prices ranging between $221.9 and $234.75 per ton.
In July, the agency bought 800,000 tons of rice from Thailand in a direct purchase from two foreign companies at $216.9 per metric ton.
A Netherlands-based trader questioned the move, saying Bulog had returned to its old practice of awarding import contracts to companies without an open tender.
"Today's tender is not interesting anymore, since the biggest part of the rice to be imported was procured without a tender process," he told the Post.
Bulog's chairman Rahardi, who is also the Minister of Industry and Trade had said to meet domestic demand, Indonesia would need to import at least two million tons of rice in the 1999/2000 fiscal year ending in March.
He had said the agency would use a loan provided by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to procure rice through a tendering process.
He said the bank had pledged to provide $194 million in financial aid, of which $63.37 million had been used to import 277,000 tons of rice in the last fiscal year.
Bulog concluded import contracts for 5.3 million tons in the last fiscal year, which ended in March, but due to payment difficulties, only 4.8 million tons were delivered. The remainder will be shipped in this fiscal year.
More than half of the imports were financed by foreign grants and loans. (gis)