THE COUNTRY might hold another tender before the year ends after the auction for 250,000 metric tons (MT) of rice scheduled on Nov. 4, an Agriculture official said.
The world’s largest rice buyer is securing its 2010 import requirements early after tropical storm Ondoy and typhoon Pepeng last month wreaked P18.4 billion worth of damage to the farm sector, mostly on rice.
Depending on the assessment of an inter-agency committee on the full extent of storm damage and how much rice needs to be imported next year, "we’re going to most likely buy again," Ludovico J. Jarina, deputy administrator of the National Food Authority (NFA) and the chairman of the NFA’s bids and awards committee, told reporters yesterday at the sidelines of the agency’s pre-bidding conference in Quezon City.
"That [additional purchase] should be locked in within this year, to be delivered next year," he added.
"The preparation is not only for the damage [caused by the two recent storms] but the eventuality that there might be another typhoon."
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