THE NATIONAL FOOD AUTHORITY (NFA) has announced a third rice tender to beef up supply for 2010?just two weeks after the first bidding.

In a bulletin, the NFA sought suppliers for 600,000 tons of well milled rice (25 percent brokens) for delivery between February and May 2010.

The NFA?s budget for the third tender, to be held on December 8, is P15.264 billion.

The announcement comes exactly a week after the NFA published its second tender for Dec. 1, seeking 600,000 tons of rice.

On Nov. 4, the NFA auctioned off supply contracts for 250,000 tons of rice.

The country now expects a total of 1.45 million tons of rice, arising from the three tenders.

NFA deputy administrator Ludovico Jarina said the grains authority would hold tenders at this pace to lock in supply while prices were still good.

Jarina said that even before typhoons wrought damage on crops, there was already a shortfall in rice production.

?This is the right time because the price is soft, the price is good,? Jarina said of the agency?s decision to hold a third tender.

He said the weighted average of prices based on the Nov. 4 tender was $530 per ton.

?We?re hoping that $530 per ton will hold and will not surge,? Jarina said.

Following the Philippines? first and last open tender for 2009, held in July, rice prices climbed by about $10 a ton.

A similar uptick in rice prices was observed following the announcement of the Nov. 4 and Dec. 1 tenders.

Jarina said any further imports would be decided by an interagency committee.

There have been indications of more shipments coming in.

NFA director for marketing Jose Cordero told reporters that the Philippines was initially estimated to import about 1.4 million metric tons. The figure was based only on production shortfall.

Cordero said this did not include crop damage or the buffer stock required for 2010.

Official palay damage now stands at 1.3 billion tons, NFA director Romeo Jimenez said.