European traders reported on Tuesday that South Korea's Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corp., a state-backed corporation, had issued an international tender to?purchase 20,000 metric tonnes of rice from the United States or Vietnam.

The deadline to submit price offers in the tender is 28 April.

The tender sought 10,000 tons of non-glutinous brewers milled rice from the United States, and 10,000?tons of?milled rice from Vietnam. The tender is looking for non-glutinous milled brewer's rice from the United States.

Between June 1 and August 15, both origins are sought.

Traders said that the results of the 'tender' may not be known until a few weeks after the price submissions. Traders said that the corporation often requires rice samples be sent to Korea to be analyzed before making a final decision. On April 21, a separate tender for an estimated 65,394 metric tons of rice will close. Michael Hogan, reporting from Hamburg and Kirovan Donovan editing)

(source: Reuters)