The Philippines bought 580,000 tonnes of rice for delivery between March and June, of which 415,000 MT will come from Vietnam, the National Food Authority (NFA) said on Thursday.

The NFA, the rice importing arm of the government, said it had also bought 155,000 MT of rice from Thailand and 10,000 MT from Pakistan.

This latest purchase would bring Manila's total rice imports since the start of the year to about 1.2 million MT.

The Philippines is one of the biggest rice importers in Asia as domestic production cannot keep pace with a rapidly growing population.