Seized 160,000 sacks of rice auctioned off for over P211M in Cebu

The Bureau of Customs formally seized the shipment of smuggled Indian rice. FILE PHOTO

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Bureau of Customs in Cebu auctioned off on Wednesday 160 million sacks of rice for over P211 million, which were among rice shipments from Vietnam that were seized by the BOC earlier in 2013.

Fifteen of the 25 participating rice traders won in the bidding, which had a total floor price of P207,667,200. The total winning bid reached P211,748,288.

Of the 32 lots up for bidding, Veramar bought Lot 1 to Lot 5; RMJR won Lot 6 to Lot 9; and Intercontinental got Lot 10 to Lot 13. The rest of the lots were divided among the 12 other winning bidders.

Those that were bid out were 162,240 sacks of rice inside 312 container vans kept inside the Cebu International Port container yard.

This was the second auction for the P1.2 billion in total rice shipments that were seized by the Bureau of Customs between March 22 and April 22. The first auction was held on June 6.

The third bidding which will involve 271 containers of smuggled rice, will be held on August 22.