Private traders lukewarm to rice auction

MANILA, Philippines - Private traders offered to buy 21,560 metric tons of rice in Friday’s auction, against the 163,000 MT the National Food Authority (NFA) sought. On Friday’s auction, there were 25 bidders: 11 farmers organizations, 1 private individual and 13 from other sectors. The bidders were: City Supermarket, Inc.; Sta. Rosa Farm Corp.; Jollibee Food Corp.; LM Cereal Corp.; Fresh N’ Famous; ANIB; Dolorita Principe; Jolli Traders International, Inc.; ECT Enterprises; Partido Rice Mill Corp.; Jubilee Multi Tech; RMJR Grains Corp.; Nismo Trading; Camiling Grains; Bagong Silangan; Bigasan ng Magsasaka; Minanhon Farmer MPC; Burot MPC; Badiang Primary MPC; Cabatuan Poor Farmers MPC; Caraudan Primary MPC; Kapisanan ng Magbubukid ng Tambal Primary MPC; Iloilo Farmers and Retailer MPC; and Carlos T. Porras. NFA said the traders offered to buy 21,060 MT from Thailand and 500 MT from China. Under the NFA’s tax expenditure subsidy scheme, they were required to pay only a service fee of P2-P3 per kilogram. NFA subjected the bidders to a price ceiling of $1,200/MT, but will have to settle final prices with overseas sellers of their choice, and complete deals by August 31. NFA Assistant Administrator Conrado Ibañez, who is also the chairman of the auction committee, said they are looking at another auction before the lean months between July-September. DoJ probes NFA deals Meanwhile, the Department of Justice (DoJ) will check the validity of contracts entered into by the NFA with traders for the commercial sale of rice. This came amid claims from traders recently charged by state prosecutors that they were selling at a higher price because of contracts approved by the NFA. But DoJ is probing the possibility these were past contracts, approved for a specific auction period, that were then "recycled." The Anti-Rice Hoarding Task Force met yesterday to discuss the counter-affidavits of 33 rice traders charged before the DoJ. About 14 of those charged were slapped with diversion of NFA stocks, punishable under laws that deal with food supply hoarding. The task force was formed last March to track down illegal traders and hoarders. - BusinessWorld