By Leslie Gatpolintan/PNA
MANILA — The National Food Authority (NFA) disclosed that it is poised to award the contracts for the import of 500,000 metric tons (MT) of rice to five Asian suppliers, the first half of which is expected to arrive not later than Dec. 31 this year.
The five traders, with bid offers lower than NFA’s reference price of USD470 per MT, are Singapore’s Olam International Ltd., Thailand’s Asia Golden Rice Co. Ltd., Myanmar’s Shwe Wah Yaung Agriculture Production Company, Thai Capital Crops Co. Ltd., and Vietnam’s Tan Long Group Joint Stock Company.
NFA Deputy Administrator for Marketing Operations Judy Carol Dansal told reporters Tuesday that the NFA Bid and Awards Committee would evaluate this week the post-qualification documents submitted by these suppliers with lowest bid offers.
“We (only use) pass/fail (criteria) and then we look into the prices. But we have to determine also the documents that they have submitted to support their bid offers,” Dansal, also chairperson of the Committee on Government-to-Private Procurement, said, adding that the issuance of notice of award follows.
“We are happy and we can say that this is a successful bidding,” she said.
Under the terms of reference, Dansal noted that the first half or 250,000 MT of 25 percent broken, well-milled long grains white rice should be delivered not later than December 31. The remaining half should arrive in the country not later than Jan. 31 next year.
The five Asian firms offered to supply 500,000 MT of rice for USD220.5 million or PHP12 billion, much lower than the government’s budget of PHP12.8 billion for its procurement.
Only 14 firms submitted their bids during Tuesday’s auction even as 16 companies actually purchased bid documents
