Sri Lanka floats international tender for 200,000 MT of rice

Sri Lanka has launched an open international tender to import a fresh tranche of rice– a first call in recent times to be issued to suppliers worldwide.

“We are making every effort to ensure that there will be no shortages for our consumers,” said Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen.

“Under the directions of the government’s Cost of Living Committee (CoLC) we announced on October 13 that we will import 500,000 MT of rice. The aim of CoLC is to support our consumers with lowest prices and give steady supplies,” he added.

The 500,000 MT announced previously on October 13 was mostly on government to government rice procurement basis.

However, the latest tender for 200, 000MT, which too is a part of this 500,000 MT tranche, enlists a far wider supplier base and is under the international competitive bidding procedure, meaning any qualifying foreign government or even a foreign private sector supplier is able to bid.
The breakdown of the 200,000 MT is: 90,000MT of parboiled nadu rice, 60,000MT of samba (parboiled) rice, and 50,000 MT of white raw rice. Sri Lankan rice importers too are eligible to take part in the latest bidding.

 Of the 200,000 MT rice called for, Sri Lanka expect 100,000 MT to arrive in Colombo by end November 2017 and the other 100,000 MT to arrive by end of December 2017.  

 The tender will close on October 30.