MANILA - The National Food Authority (NFA) awarded contracts for the supply of 75,000 tons to 3 companies that will source the grain from Thailand and Pakistan, the state-run agency said on Wednesday. Confirming a Reuters report on Tuesday, NFA spokesman Rex Estoperez told Reuters Asia Golden Rice secured the deal to supply Manila with 47,000 tons of Thai rice at $487 per ton, including cost and freight. Thai Hua Ltd. was awarded the supply of 18,000 tons Thai rice at $486.28 a ton, C&F, and global trading firm Toepfer International the remaining 10,000 tons of rice, to be sourced from Pakistan, at $472.72 a ton, C&F, he said.

The agriculture minister says he expects medium-quality rice production to dip slightly next year due to late planting as a result of the El Nino effect, and has urged farmers to plant wetland areas so as to mitigate the effects of the anticipated drought.

The minister last week predicted that this year’s third and last planting season, mostly on Java, would be delayed to November or December, about two months later than usual, because of lack of rainfall. As a result, national production would fall by about 1.6 million tons next year, or 2.6 percent of this year’s anticipated output of 62.5 million tons.

Guwahati, Jul 24 : Rice production in 'agricultural drought' hit Assam is feared to fall up to 50 per cent if the dry spell continued, with the state already recording 34 per cent rainfall deficit till mid-July. ''Rice production is likely to be negative this year and we fear up to 50 per cent decline in rice production if the conditions do not improve,'' state Agriculture Department Minister Pramila Rani Brahma said here today. She informed that the state had recorded 40 lakh metric tonnes (MT) rice production last year against demand of 39.5 lakh MT, with the state even selling 5,000 MT to the FCI over a decade.

SINGAPORE/BANGKOK, July 21 - Thailand's commerce minister said on Tuesday the government would release 600,000 tonnes from its paddy rice stocks, instead of milled rice, for exporters to sell as parboiled rice."We have about 600,000 tonnes of paddy rice in government stocks and we will sell them to exporters ... because we cannot compete in the white rice market," Pornthiva Nakasai told Reuters in an interview in Singapore. Government officials have put total stocks at the equivalent of 6 million tonnes of milled rice, the amount that would be produced from 10 million tonnes of paddy.