Vietnam has won additional contracts to export rice to the Philippines at higher prices, following the latest auction on Tuesday, bringing the total of rice auction volume over the last four bids to 1.3 million tonnes of rice.

At the Filipino government rice auction on Tuesday, the Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood 2) won export contracts for 600,000 tonnes of rice at an average export price of 665 USD per tonne.

Cao Thi Ngoc Hoa, the corporation’s deputy general director, said the winning bid was the largest export rice volume the corporation has won over the four auctions that the Filipino Government recently held.

Enterprises from Thailand , Germany , France and the Republic of Korea failed in their bids because they offered export prices at more than 700 USD per tonne, said Hoa.
At the auction on December 8, the corporation also won contracts to export a total of 300,000 tonnes of rice at an average export price of 650 USD per tonne. While at the auction on December 1, the Vietnamese rice exporter won contracts to export a total of 300,000 tonnes of 25 percent broken rice to the Philippines to be delivered from February to May 2010 at an average price of 625 USD per tonne, higher than 480 USD at the auction on November 4.

The corporation currently has contracts to export 1.3 million tonnes of rice to the Philippines in 2010 as a result of the four auctions.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said Vietnam exported 5.7 million tonnes of rice in the first 11 months of this year, earning 2.3 billion USD. The figures jumped by 31.9 percent in volume but fell 7.12 percent in value compared with the same period last year.

The country is expected to export a record 6-6.2 million tonnes of rice this year.
The ministry estimates it will have a total unhusked rice output of 38.9 million tonnes for this year, higher than the output of 38.6 million tonnes in 2008./.