Global trading firms, including Louis Dreyfus and Ameropa, made offers of between $373 and $599 per tonne in the three separate tenders of 10,000 tonnes each floated in October, government sources said.
MTPL was the lowest bidder, the sources said. The bids are valid until Nov. 12.
The foreign trading firms have offered to supply rice varieties from Pakistan, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar.
Industry officials and traders said the response was good but high bid prices would discourage India, the world's second-biggest producer, from importing more in the near future.
The government said there was no need to import more rice.
"I do not think so," Junior Farm Minister K.V. Thomas told reporters when asked whether there would be a further need for rice imports.
Traders said rice prices, which have surged recently, would rise further with the Philippines, the world's largest importer, floating a tender next month to buy 600,000 tonnes.
"The response is good. India buying rice is a matter of great interest in the global trade. It will fuel sentiments up," said R.S. Seshadri, director of Tilda Riceland.
Chicago Board of Trade rice futures rose on Friday, with the most-active January contract RRF0 climbing nearly 1 percent to $15.29 per hundred weight, not far from a contract high reached last week.
PEC Ltd received seven bids, MMTC Ltd got six bids and State Trading Corp of India had five, government sources said.
India's rice output is set to plunge this year after the worst June-September monsoon rains in decades destroyed crops or delayed sowing, and subsequent floods in some states further ravaged rice fields.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture had forecast a fall of between 15 million and 17 million tonnes in India's rice output for the marketing year 2009/10 from a record 99.2 million tonnes in 2008/09.
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