Eleven foreign private companies bought bid documents to participate in the auction to bring 250,000 metric tons of rice to the Philippines, state-run National Food Authority said Thursday.
NFA said the list of bidders included Olam International Limited, Ponglarp Co. Limited, Thai Hua Co. Limited, Vietnam Southern Food Corp. II, Gentraco, Gia International Corp., Louis Dreyfus Company, Vietnam Northern Food Corp. (Vinafood I), Capital Cereals Co. Ltd., Asia Golden Rice Co. Ltd. and Thai Granlux Int’l Inc.
“As much as possible, we invite prospective bidders. We are discussing all to prevent failed bidding,” NFA deputy administrator and chairman of special bids and awards committee Tomas Escarez said during the pre-bidding conference.
The National Food Security Council earlier recommended the immediate importation of 250,000 MT of rice to beef up the buffer stock for the lean season.
This year’s importation will done through a government-to-private scheme to augment the agency’s stock for the coming lean months of July to September.
Instead of limiting the bidders to government counterparts, private suppliers from participating countries may now be allowed to participate in the bidding, making the whole process covered by the Government Procurement Reform Act, unlike the previous government-to-government scheme.
NFA said the 250,000 metric tons would be divided into eight lots. Of the total volume, 20,000 MT would be discharged in Poro Point, La Union, 30,000 MT in Batangas, 100,000 MT in Manila, 25,000 MT in Tabaco, 25,000 MT in Cebu, 25,000 MT in Cagayan de Oro City, 15,000 MT in Davao and 10,000 MT in General Santos. The arrival of the shipments will be in August until September.
Under the terms of reference for the importation, prospective bidders may bid for any of the lots provided that the bid must be the minimum/maximum of the imported rice allocated per lot but the maximum quantity to be awarded per supplier must not be higher than 50,000 MT. The bidding process will be on July 25.
“The opening of the bids and award of the contract to the bidder with the lowest calculated responsive bid shall be on a per lot basis. Rice must be shipped in break bulk,” said NFA.
The government budgeted P5.6 billion for the importation of 250,000 metric tons 25-percent brokens long grain white rice well-milled.
NFA said the bases of the computation were the prevailing freight on board price, expenses rates of freight, insurance and other incidental/dispersal costs and foreign exchange rate at P50 per US dollar.
“We want more private sector participation. The government to private scheme is a collective decision of the NFA Council,” said NFA.
