Philippine’s National Food Authority completes bidding for rice imports.

The National Food Authority has finally awarded the supply of 250,000 metric tons (MT) of rice imports to the governments of Vietnam and Thailand after a reopening of offers. The two governments lowered their offers to match NFA’s adjusted reference prices after the failure of the first bidding conducted last April 27. NFA’s reference price for the second bidding was set at $531 per MT for the 15 percent broken and $520.50 per MT for the 25 percent broken rice, based on the prevailing world market prices and the peso-dollar exchange rate as of May 3, 2018. However, the agency’s spokesman, said that the country may have secured lower prices if the bidding was allowed to be done earlier.