The Philippines is in talks with Thailand for rice supplies in a bid to boost its domestic stocks amid surging prices and dwindling export supplies in the global market.

Last week, Vietnam formally made a commitment to supply an additional 1.5 million MT of rice to the Philippines; the Philippines has already contracted to import 1.1 million MT so far in 2008, mainly from Vietnam.

Philippines is also expected to buy 100,000 MT of rice from the U.S. under a commodity loan program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.