Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The Philippines, the world’s biggest rice buyer, issued its third tender for 2010 supplies after storms damaged crops and the country accelerates imports to secure shipments amid surging prices.

The Philippines will hold a tender for 600,000 metric tons of rice on Dec. 8, a week after a record 600,000 ton tender on Dec. 1, pushing the country’s purchases for 2010 to 1.45 million tons before the end of this year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated on Nov. 10 the country will import a record 2.6 million tons next year, out of an estimated total world trade of 29.5 million tons.

“We have to secure our supplies ahead of everybody else,” Romeo Jimenez, director of the authority, said in a phone interview from Manila today. “India will also be importing rice. Prices will rise.”

Rising Philippine purchases will drive global prices higher as exporters draw from stockpiles, leaving less supply for other importers, said Shahzad Naqi, chief executive officer at Karachi-based Peak Holding (Pvt) Ltd., which exports rice from Pakistan.

The export price of 25 percent broken rice from Pakistan, the world’s third-biggest shipper, has jumped 11 percent to $400 a ton, excluding freight costs, since the Philippines held the first of the three tenders, for 250,000 tons, earlier this month, Naqi said.

“That much quantity is diverted from sales for Africa,” Naqi said. “That may create more demand for rice from Pakistan,” pushing the South Asian nation’s export prices higher, he said.

Deepening Losses

Rice supplies from Thailand and Vietnam earmarked for Africa, may be diverted to the Philippines, Naqi said.

Philippine rice imports may rise to a record next year after storms damaged crops, Jose Cordero, assistant administrator at National Food said today.

“You could make an estimate that the volume will reach that level,” Cordero said, when asked if imports may rise to 3 million tons next year. Without losses from the storms, the annual shortfall in supply is about 1.4 million tons, he said.

Estimated losses to the Philippines’ rough rice output from recent storms have deepened to 1.3 million tons, Jimenez said. The government estimated the losses at 1 million tons on Oct. 30. The Southeast Asian nation is advancing purchases for next year after Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap predicted a “rerun of 2008” record rice prices on Oct. 28.

El Nino

Rice futures have surged 35 percent from this year’s low of $11.195 on the Chicago Board of Trade. The price surged to a record $25.07 in April 2008 as concern about supply shortages prompted India and Vietnam to cut exports. The contract last traded at $15.105 as of 5:17 p.m. Singapore time.

Rice export prices may double to more than $1,000 a ton as dry El Nino weather shrinks output and the Philippines and India boost imports, Sarunyu Jeamsinkul, deputy managing director at Asia Golden Rice Ltd. in Thailand, the largest exporting nation, said on Nov. 9.

The benchmark export price for Thai 100 percent grade-B white rice, updated weekly by the Thai Rice Exporters Association, was set at $542 a ton on Nov. 11.

Slowing Production

Damage to the Philippines’ crops, including rice and corn, have slowed growth in agricultural production, which accounts for a fifth of the $167 billion economy, to 1.6 percent in the third quarter, from a year earlier, according to data from the country’s Department of Agriculture today.

The Dec. 8 rice tender will have a budget of 15.26 billion pesos ($328 million), the same as the Dec. 1 tender, and delivery will be set for February to May, according to the tender advertisement posted in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The Philippines may also allow the private sector, including food companies, to buy about 200,000 tons of rice from overseas to help the government boost supplies, Jimenez told reporters in Manila today, without elaborating.

The National Food Authority allowed the private sector to import rice last year and paid the 50 percent tax on shipments to increase supplies and cool inflation.

To contact the reporters on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net; Cecilia Yap in Manila at cyap19@bloomberg.net at

Last Updated: November 16, 2009 05:17 EST