The Philippines' National Food Authority (NFA) on April 4 accepted offers from both Vietnam and Thailand for a total of 250,000 tons of rice supply, as it rushes to rebuild depleted buffer stocks ahead of the lean local harvestseason.
Vietnam wins 130,000-tons rice bids in Philippines.
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It reopened the tender on April 4 for the government-to-government procurement. Vietnam will supply 130,000 tons and Thailand will deliver the balance of 120,000 tons.
The NFA allocated US$531 per tonne for its purchase of 50,000 tons of 15% broken rice, a deal won by Vietnam with an offer of US$526.50 a tonne.
Vietnam also won a separate deal involving 80,000 tons of 25% broken rice at US$517.50 a ton, below the NFA's budget of US$520.50 a ton.
Thailand won a 120,000-ton supply deal involving 25% broken rice with a similar offer of US$517.50 a ton.
Consequently, both Vietnam and Thailand will supply 100,000 tons of 25% broken rice to Philippines from now on until May 31, informed VFA. The remaining 100,000 tons of 25% broken rice will be delivered by May 16 at the latest, and 50,000 tons of 15% broken rice before June 30.
Moreover, NFA will open another bidding for rice purchase of 250,000 tons in the upcoming May 22.
Vietnam's rice export in the first four months reached 2.16 million tons for US$1.1 billion, according to the Ministry of Agricultural & Rural Development (MARD), up 21.7% in terms of quantity and 37.7% in value compared to the same period of last year.
The average rice export in first quarter is reported at US$501 per ton, up 15% compared to the same period of last year.
In 2018, Vietnam set the target of exporting 6.5 million tons of rice, said Vice Minister of Agricultural and Rural Development Ha Cong Tuan to Vietnam News Agency.
The Philippines is currently Vietnam's top rice importer with 26.9% of the total exported amount, followed by China (23.5%).
In particular, Vietnam's export price was higher than that of Thailand. In 2016, the average export price was US$435 per ton, which has increased to US$450 in 2017 and US$475 in 2018.
The growth rate of the Vietnamese agricultural sector was set at 3%, while the targeted export value of agricultural products was US$40 billion, according to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc's statement at MARD's January 4 meeting on the performance of the sector in 2017 and its plans for 2018.
