February 27, 2007

 

Australia's AWB to consider Indian wheat import request
 

 

Australia's dominant wheat exporter AWB Ltd. would consider any request to export more wheat to India if agreement could be reached on price and tonnage, company spokesman Peter McBride said Tuesday.

 

"If the tonnage and price are supportive to the national pool, we'll obviously consider it, but at this stage it's still a little unclear if India is going to be importing any large quantities of wheat for this year," he said by telephone.

 

AWB is currently allocating export tonnage to specific long-term markets after sharply lower drought-affected production from the last crop, he said.

 

Growers have delivered 3.1 million tonnes from the crop harvested in late 2006 to AWB's collective export sales pool, the company reported Monday.

 

Combined with a carryover from the previous crop that has not been exported yet, which McBride said was between 2 million and 3 million tonnes, total export availability could be up to about 6 million tonnes.

 

AWB has heard of mixed reports about India's wheat import need for 2007, including suggestions but no confirmation that it might need up to 3 million tonnes, he said.

 

On Monday, the US Department of Agriculture reported a "strong possibility" of wheat imports by the Indian government in the next marketing year starting April of 3 million tonnes to rebuild stocks, especially if the 2007 summer monsoon (June-September) turns out to be below normal.

 

India's State Trading Corp. will import an estimated 5.5 million tonnes of wheat this marketing year, the largest quantity of which about 1.6 million tonnes is shipped by AWB, USDA said.

 

India's private trade reportedly imported a further 800,000 tonnes of wheat, mostly from Australia, Ukraine and Russia, taking total imports to 6.3 million tonnes, USDA added.

 

India's wheat stock is estimated at 6 million tonnes on Nov 1, 2006, down from 9 million tonnes a year earlier, the country's government said Tuesday in its Economic Survey for 2006-07.

 

The survey estimates total wheat imports at 6.5 million, including 1 million tonnes by private companies, in the current financial year ending Mar 31.