The Philippine government plans to auction on April 20 rights for private firms to import 45,100 tonnes of sugar that were not bought at a previous sale, a government official said Thursday, as the country plugs a crop shortfall.

The volume is the remainder of the 60,000 tonnes Manila auctioned on Feb. 23, when it only sold rights for 14,900 tonnes. The Philippines needs the imports to meet increased demand and cover an expected fall in output as dry weather hits crops.

''We have the go-signal to proceed with the rebidding and the tentative schedule for the opening of bids is on April 20,'' Rosemarie Gumera, manager at the Sugar Regulatory Administration, told Reuters.

The re-tender comes after US sugar prices have nearly halved since hitting a 29-year high of 30.40 cents per lb on Feb. 1.

''We also need to build a buffer stock of between 300,000 and 360,000 tonnes by the end of the crop year in August,'' said Gumera.

Apart from the rights being auctioned, the government has also allocated import rights for 90,000 tonnes to private firms after they had exported a similar volume in the previous crop year.

The 14,900 tonnes that were allocated in February are scheduled to arrive on June 15, and the government expects the balance of the 150,000 tonnes allocated to private firms can land by July 31.

Philippine raw sugar output for the crop year ending August was likely to be lower than the projected 2.18 million tonnes due to the El Niño weather pattern, Rafael Coscolluela, the then head of the state sugar agency, said last month.