February 16, 2012

Japan buys 67,805 tonnes of feed wheat

Japan on Wednesday (Feb 15) purchased 67,805 tonnes of feed wheat in a tender, a government official said.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries bought the grain for bulk shipment by May 31, the official said.

This marks the second time in five weeks that Japan has made purchases in feed grain SBS tenders, having cancelled three recent tenders.

Last week, it bought 48,245 tonnes of feed barley and 3,000 tonnes of feed wheat due to a lack of buyers and sellers. Importers prefer to buy through private tenders, where prices are comparatively lower, traders in Tokyo said.

Under the SBS system, end-users can negotiate collectively on price, quantity and origin of grains before submitting bids to trading firms via the agriculture ministry. Japan mostly buys wheat and barley from Canada, Australia, the US and France.