ISTANBUL (Dow Jones)--The Turkish government has mandated the state grain board, or TMO, to import 100,000 metric tons of rice duty free by the end of July, 2009, the official gazette showed Thursday, the Ihlas News Agency, or IHA, reported. 
 
The government had also mandated TMO to import 700,000 tons of wheat and 300,000 metric tons of corn by the end of May, 2009. 
 Turkey's grain production is traditionally enough for domestic needs but last year, drought hit the crops and TMO started issuing international purchase
tenders. 
 
 

MANILA (Dow Jones)--The Philippines National Food Authority is likely to award contracts, despite high offers made during a rice purchase tender Thursday, traders said.

  The NFA is expected to buy around 100,000 metric tons of rice from Vietnam out of total offers of 325,750 tons. The balance will be shared mostly between Thailand and Pakistan.

  The total quantity of rice offered in the tender is short of the 500,000 tons sought by the NFA, and the agency can afford to buy the entire volume based on a budget allocation of around PHP15 billion, traders said.

  "If they don't now, prices might be higher in the May tender," one trader said, referring to another buy tender for 500,000 tons of rice the NFA plans for May 5.

BANGKOK, April 17 (Bernama) -- Thailand is committed to exporting over nine million tonnes of rice to the world market at an appropriate price, the Samak government reaffirmed Wednesday.

Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Mingkwan Saengsuwan said Thailand is able to export more than 9.0 million tonnes of rice this year "at a reasonable price," Thailand's news agency TNA reported.

He pledged that the country will not take unfair advantage of the impending global food shortage by hiking the export price of rice.