Manila, Jan 16 - Vietnamese firms are likely to supply 474,000 tonnes of 25-percent broken rice to the Philippines with delivery between February and April, traders said after a tender on Tuesday.
The Vietnamese firms offered a price of $308.88 per tonne to $308.95 per tonne, including cost and freight, if they were not required to import Philippine products in return, the traders said.
The Philippines' National Food Authority (NFA), which conducted the tender for the supply of 500,000 tonnes of rice, asked suppliers to give two prices -- if they were required to make a mandatory import of local products and if not.
NFA deputy administrator Ludovico Jarina said results of the tender would be announced within five working days.
Traders said a contract for 20,000 tonnes would likely go to trading firm Asia Golden Rice, which offered to sell rice from Thailand at $307.60 per tonne C&F.
Another 6,000 tonnes was likely to be awarded to trading firm Louis Dreyfus, which offered Pakistani rice at $307.77 per tonne C&F.
The prices offered by Asia Golden Rice and Louis Dreyfus were without the mandatory countertrade of Philippine products.
Some 17 trading firms offered to supply the Philippines' initial requirement of rice coming from either Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, India, Pakistan, China or the United States.
The cheapest offer came from Asia Golden Rice at $307.60 per tonne of Thai rice and the highest at $331.50 per tonne also of Thai rice from Concordia Agri Trading.
There were no offers of rice coming from Australia, the United States, China or India at the tender.
The NFA said it last bought 25-percent broken rice from Thailand in June last year at $298.75 per tonne C&F and the same variety of rice from China at $289.75.
It last bought 25 percent broken rice from Vietnam in May last year at $286.54 per tonne C&F.
Earlier on Tuesday, NFA spokesman Rex Estoperez said the Philippines may import 1.8 million tonnes of rice this year from 1.65 million in 2006.
"Because of the calamities last year and the El Nino this year, we may increase it (imports) from last year's 1.65 million tonnes to 1.8 million tonnes in 2007," he told reporters.
Four typhoons hit wide areas of the Philippines from September to December last year.
For this year, analysts have warned of the impact of the dry El Nino weathern pattern on the farm sector.
They expected the effect of the weather phenomenon to prevail in the country in the first six months of the year.