Vietnam takes part in Philippines rice tender

The Philippines government has set aside a budget of nearly US$383 million to import rice to strengthen rice reserves of the National Food Authority (NFA).

LG International Corp, Vietnam Southern Food Corp (Vinafood 2) and the shipping unit of the French group Louie Dreyfus Co. officially are participatingin the biddingprocess held in Quezon on April 3.

Two other Thai companies including Thai Hua Co. Ltd and Asia Golden Rice Co. Ltd have expressed an interest in submitting a bid for the contract. The deadline for the submission of bids is April 15.

Ludovico Jarina, who heads the bids and award committee, said that the Vietnamese bidders have bought documents for all four lots while the others are targeting only one or two lots.