MANILA - The Philippines government has approved the purchase of 187,000 tonnes of rice from Vietnam because it underbid Thailand by a huge margin.
Warehouse worker hoovers up stray rice at a Philippines government storage area. (File photo)
The Philippines news site Rappler.com reported Tuesday that Vietnam's Southern Food company offered a price of $459.75 per tonne to win the bid.
The Thai government, the only other bidder on the Philippines contract, offered a price of $568 per tonne for the 25% broken white rice.
That made the Thai price $108.25 higher than Vietnam's offer - per tonne, or $20.2 million for the order.
The Philippines sale appeared to provide more proof that Thailand is finding it difficult to impossible to sell rice at a competitive price because of the high prices it is paying to farmers for paddy.
For the Philippines, it was a one-time importation deal.
National Food Authority (NFA) administrator Orlan Agbin Calayag told reporters he expects the country to be self-sufficient for the rest of the year.