[Vietnamization, rice] Thailand, Vietnam Win Rice Bid

[Background / related]

RICE

The Vietnamization of Kampuchea: A New Model of Colonialism (Indochina Report, October 1984)

Part II: Vietnamization of the Economic Framework (continued)

The Unequal Exchange

        

It is within this new institutional framework that the Vietnamese are asserting their hold over the economy and future of Kampuchea.  Fisheries, rubber and rice are the three main sectors affected by what should be termed the Unequal Exchange between Vietnam and Kampuchea.

,,,

Manila port workers unload sacks of rice from a Vietnam cargo ship. Vietnam and Thailand won a bid to supply the Philippines with 250,000 tons of rice. Reuters

Thailand, Vietnam Win Rice Bid

 Reuters / Khmer Times | 1 September 2016

Cambodia did not join the bid to supply the Philippines with the staple grain, citing its own problems in the rice sector ranging from falling exports, high transportation and production costs, to the lack of warehouses to store paddy rice to be milled.

“This year, we didn’t have any plans to join the bid because we still have to tackle many problems. We are facing big challenges and we have to overcome them, to make us more competitive against other bidders,” Hun Lak, vice-president of the Cambodia Rice Federation, told Khmer Times.

Cambodia’s rice exports fell by 6.9 percent from the 283,825 tons in the first six months of last year to about 268,190 tons in same period this year, according to a report released by the General Department of Agriculture early this month.

MANILA (Reuters/Khmer Times) ‒ Thailand and Vietnam won deals to supply a total of 250,000 tons of rice to the Philippines at a tender yesterday after revising down their offers to just within Manila’s budget.
 

The tender, the first under the two-month old government of President Rodrigo Duterte, is part of the state’s plans to import up to one million tons of rice to secure supply of the food staple through next year while prices are low.
 

Thailand will supply 100,000 tons of 25 percent broken rice at $424.85 a ton, while Vietnam will export the remaining 150,000 tons at the same price, according to officials at the Philippines’ National Food Authority (NFA). That includes freight, insurance and other costs.
 

Despite the tender by the Philippines, one of the world’s top rice buyers, Vietnam’s benchmark five percent broken rice prices fell this week to $345-$360 a ton, on a free-on-board basis, the lowest in 11 months.
 

The NFA initially rejected higher bids from both countries and asked them to submit revised offers in line with its reference price of $425 per ton.
 

The award of the contracts is subject to approval by the inter-agency NFA council later in the day, said NFA spokesman Angel Imperial.
 

An average of 20 typhoons pass through the Philippines each year, hitting the Southeast Asian country’s rice production and forcing it to import any shortfall to feed its 100 million people.
 

Imports last year reached around 1.8 million tons, below a record volume of 2.45 million tons in 2010.
 

“We need sizable import volume to boost our stocks and prepare ourselves for any emergency situation,” Mr. Imperial told reporters.
 

He said the agency’s buffer stock as of August 24 was good for only 21 days of domestic demand, below the minimum 30 days required during the lean harvest season from July to September. Last year’s import volume included around 500,000 tons shipped in by private traders.

The NFA every year farms out import permits for private traders to bring in up to 805,200 tons of rice at a 35-percent tariff.
 

Cambodia did not join the bid to supply the Philippines with the staple grain, citing its own problems in the rice sector ranging from falling exports, high transportation and production costs, to the lack of warehouses to store paddy rice to be milled.
 

“This year, we didn’t have any plans to join the bid because we still have to tackle many problems. We are facing big challenges and we have to overcome them, to make us more competitive against other bidders,” Hun Lak, vice-president of the Cambodia Rice Federation, told Khmer Times.
 

Cambodia’s rice exports fell by 6.9 percent from the 283,825 tons in the first six months of last year to about 268,190 tons in same period this year, according to a report released by the General Department of Agriculture early this month.