CHEN:
The Philippines is looking to Thailand and Vietnam to help meet short falls in rice production this year. The Thai Prime Minister was in Manila for talks and visited rice stalls at a local market. Here's more.

STORY:
Thai leader Samak Sundaravej and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo met in Manila yesterday. Thailand has now become the second country to officially commit to supply rice to the Philippines this year. But no volumes or prices were discussed during talks between the leaders.

Thai leader Samak Sundaravej was inspecting rice stalls in a fresh food market in Manila. He says the supply looks plentiful with the amount of stalls selling rice there.

[Samak Sundaravej, Prime Minister Thailand]:
"In Thailand, in the market, we have one, two, three, finished to selling rice. But this one, oh, rice so much. All the way through, it's all rice. It seems that this country still have strong enough to keep the stock of the rice. Don't worry."

Samak says that the prices of the rice were the same in the Philippines and in Thailand.

[Arthur Yap, Agriculture Secretary Philippine]:
"I'm happy to hear that the prices are the same, even rice. So imagine, they are a rice exporting country, we are an importing country, but he says the price of rice is the same."

The Philippines has already contracted 1.7 million tons of its national staple from overseas sources. This has cost about $1 billion U.S. dollars so far this year. But authorities are planning shipments of up to 2 million tons to help shore up the country's buffer stock.