National Food Authority raises budget for rice imports

MANILA, Philippines - The National Food Authority (NFA) is increasing its budget for its Dec. 15 rice tender from P15.26 billion to P18.525 billion following indications rice prices are going up.

The NFA bids and awards committee (BAC) approved the increase as the bids for its Dec. 1 rice tender were up by $130 per metric tons compared to the previous rice tender.

The NFA has scheduled two tenders – one for Dec. 8 and another for Dec. 15 – for similar volumes of 600,000 metric tons each.

The approved budget for all these tenders is P15.26 billion.

The NFA BAC deliberated Tuesday on the possible increase of the Dec. 15 rice tender.

Because of the higher price offers for the Dec. 1 rice tender, the NFA, according to one official, may award only 500,000 to 520,000 MT out of the targeted acquisition of 600,000 MT.

NFA director Romeo Jimenez told reporters that “based on the price offers, we may be able to award around 500,000 to 520,000.”

The BAC has five days to deliberate on the results of the Dec. 1 bidding, but the NFA BAC met Tuesday to decide on how much to award and if it would request for an additional increase in the budget for the Dec. 15 bidding.

NFA Deputy Administrator Ludovico Jarina explained that the NFA could only increase the budget for the Dec. 15 tender and not for the Dec. 8 tender.

The bid budget can be amended within seven days of the pre-bid conference.

The NFA has conducted the pre-bidding conference for the Dec. 8 auction.