THE Philippines yesterday scrapped a tender
for 675,000 tons of rice but set an auction for 163,000 tons for
the private sector later in the week.
Vietnam’s state-owned Vinafood II, the sole
bidder at the tender, failed to supply a bank guarantee, said
Ludovico Jarina, deputy administrator of the National Food
Authority.
"The bidding was a failure," he said.
Malacañang said the cancellation would not
affect rice supply because the country has already filled up its
supply gap and is in the market only for its buffer stock.
International markets had been looking to
yesterday’s tender as an indicator on whether surging rice
prices have peaked.
The Philippines, the world’s largest rice
importer, this year has so far bought 1.71 million tons in a
flurry of tenders that is said to have helped propel world rice
prices to record highs.
"Today should have been a price-setting day
but that did not happen," said one trader at the auction. "I
think people will just sit back and wait."
Jarina said the Philippines would hold
another tender only when rice prices had climbed off their
peaks. Traders, however, said it may need to move soon because
Monday’s tender was for delivery before July.
The NFA said it would hold a country-quota
specific auction for private importers on May 9 for 163,000 tons
of rice.
The rice will be sourced from Thailand with
98,000 tons, China and India with 25,000 tons each and Australia
with 15,000 tons, NFA officials said.
Private firms will be eligible to import the
grain, they said. An import tariff of 50 percent on the rice
would be waived, the officials said, although the NFA would
impose a service fee.
Typically, however, private sector interest
at these auctions is lukewarm.
Food administration officials also said
Manila would ask for 60,000 to 100,000 tons of rice from an East
Asia rice fund.
The Philippines has helped propel world rice
prices to record highs as it scrambles to boost its buffer
stocks amid export curbs by some rice-producing nations.
It has spent around $1 billion buying the
1.71 million tons of rice, mainly from Vietnam and Thailand, and
has said it wants to buy up to 2.2 million tons, the biggest
purchase in a decade.
Manila paid an average of about $1,136 per
ton, cost and freight included, at its last auction in April, up
60 percent from an auction in March.
At a tender in the beginning of the year, the
average price was $474.41 per ton.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the
Philippines will not avail itself of the Asian Development
Bank’s Emergency Fund for countries hit by rice price hikes to
procure its supply of the staple, saying government has enough
money to buy the people’s needs.
Bunye also said only 30 percent or 210,000 of
the list of 700,000 beneficiaries of the "access cards" that
Metro Manila mayors have submitted to the Department of Social
Welfare and Development had so far been verified.
He said he estimates it would take the DSWD
two more weeks to process the balance.
The access cards will be given to Metro Manila’s poorest
families and entitle each family to buy two kilos a day of the
P18.25 NFA rice. – Regina Bengco, Randy Nobleza and
Reuters
