Landbank to finalize winning MAV bidders

The Land Bank of the Philippines is set to finalize this week the winning bidders for the importation of the 805,200 metric tons (MT) of rice under the minimum access volume (MAV) scheme following an oversubscribed open auction.

NFA Grains Market and Operations Division director Rocky Valdez said Landbank is expected to submit the final list of winning bidders anytime this week.

“NFA then will notify them so they can start paying the balance of their service fees as bid before they are given certificate of eligibility to import rice indicating awarded volume,” he said.

NFA has yet to receive the final numbers from Landbank as 691,000 MT was awarded to 150 companies, while there was an excess of 115,000 MT based on the auction last week.

For the excess volume, the committee has agreed that it would allow those second to the highest bidders to fill up whatever is left from those lots that were not taken.

“Based on that, they may start paying advance cus- toms duties (35 percent tariff) to Landbank then they can start importing rice based on awarded volume from their source countries,” Valdez said.

“After negotiating with suppliers, they must secure import permits from NFA for the rice that they will bring in. The import permit is the basis by the customs for allowing entry of rice in the country,” he said.

Last week’s auction was oversubscribed after the Bureau of the Treasury received about 1.8 million MT, more than double the MAV volume.

Only 80 percent of the import volume was allocated to non-farmer organizations (644,000 MT), while the remaining 20 percent was allotted for farmer organizations (161,000 MT).

Allocations for Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao are also proportioned based on the 2018 national daily consumption requirements. Of the total rice imports, 467,000 MT will be for Luzon, 153,000 MT for Visayas, and 185,000 MT for Mindanao.

A total of eight lots were auctioned representing allocation on a per area basis in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao per type of organization and per country of origin.

For the volume per origin, Thailand and Vietnam have the highest maximum volume set for countries with specific quota at 293,100 MT each.

China, India, and Pakistan were given 50,000 MT limit each, followed by Australia with 15,000 MT, and El Salvador with 4,000 MT. Rice imports from omnibus origin was limited to 50,000 MT.

The first phase of the arrival of rice imports will start in July not later than Aug. 31, while the second phase will start Dec. 20, not later than Feb. 28, 2019.

Discharge ports are La Union, Subic, Manila, Batangas, Tabaco and Legaspi for Luzon; Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod and Tacloban for Visayas; and Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, Davao and General Santos City for Mindanao.

The MAV refers to the volume of a specific agricultural product that is allowed to be imported with a lower tariff as a commitment of the Philippines under the provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of the World Trade Organization.

The annual MAV importation is being shouldered by the private sector.