Small importers set to bring in 60,000 tons of rice

THIRTY-TWO farmers’ groups pre-qualified to import the remaining private sector quota of 60,000 metric tons (MT) of rice during the last leg of import bidding on Monday, a National Food Authority (NFA) official told reporters after the auction.

“The 32 pre-qualified cooperatives have won a total of 63,511 MT of rice,” special assistant to the NFA administrator and bidding and awards committee co-chair Gilberto E. Lauengco said.

“After the pre-qualifier, we will further investigate the documents of the cooperatives for the next two weeks to determine the final list of importers, and we will eventually bring down the volume to the prescribed 60,000 MT,” Mr. Lauengco added.

Twenty-four cooperatives hail from Luzon with a total volume of 47,511 MT, while the remaining eight with a volume of 16,000 MT come from Visayas and Mindanao.

The auction yesterday completes this year’s rice import quota of 860,000 MT, with the NFA bringing in 200,000 MT through a government-to-government deal with Vietnam and large-scale private sector traders bringing in 600,000 MT.

(Source: http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Economy&id=29232&title=Small%20importers%20set%20to%20bring%20in%2060,000%20tons%20of%20rice)