Both companies offered prices of slightly under US$428 per tonne.

Thai Capital Crops Co Ltd will also export 18,000 tonnes of rice to the Philippines for $426.3 per tonne.

In the last week’s rice import tender, the NFA accepted offers for only 47,000 tonnes from three suppliers, well below a planned purchase of 250,000 tonnes,

Most of the offers from 13 international suppliers exceeded the state-run NFA’s approved budget of $428.18 per tonne. “We will reopen the tender for the volume that was not taken,” said Dansal.

The Philippines is on a rice buying spree this year, after President Rodrigo Duterte lifted a 20-year restriction on rice imports as inflation accelerated. The NFA has been approved to import 2.4 million tonnes, just below the record 2.45 million tonnes bought in 2010 when rising global food prices stoked shortage fears.