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Philippines may turn to Thailand for rice

The Philippines will consider buying rice from any foreign rice suppliers, including Thailand, under agreements with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), an official from the National Food Authority (NFA) has said.
The Philippines will consider buying rice from any foreign ricesuppliers, including Thailand, under agreements with the World TradeOrganisation (WTO) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN), an official from the National Food Authority (NFA) has said.

NFA spokesperson Rex Estoperez said the rice supply agreement betweenManila and Bangkok expired last year, so if Thailand wants to exportrice to the Philippines, the agreement must be renewed.

Previously, Thailand proposed to sell rice at a great loss to supportThai farmers who participated in their Government’s rice pledgingscheme.

In November last year, the Vietnam FoodAssociation (VFA) won a contract to supply 500,000 tonnes of rice at462.25 USD per tonne to the Philippines, while Thailand’s price is 475USD per tonne.

Estoperez said that Thailand has sinceoffered rice to the Philippines at 462 USD per tonne, 25 cents lessthan Vietnam, but the Philippines rejected the offer as it cannotviolate WTO and ASEAN rules.

The United Nations Foodand Agriculture Orga nisation (FAO) has forecast that the Philippines’rice import will rise 20 percent to 1.2 million tonnes this year due todamage caused by super typhoon Haiyan in November last year.-VNA
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