May 30, 2007

 

India: Imported US wheat should be certified by APHIS
 

 

India prefers that any shipment of wheat from the US should be certified as meeting all Indian quality norms by the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or APHIS, according to a senior Indian government official.

 

Indian government officials recently visited the US to discuss procedural issues for quality certification of imported wheat with their counterparts there.

 

During the visit, India and the US explored the feasibility of appointing any agency for quality testing and certification before loading of a cargo at the port of origin other than APHIS, said the government official.

 

"After deliberations, it was felt that APHIS is the most appropriate agency to issue a phytosanitary certificate for any shipment, although the USDA's Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration, or GIPSA, was also considered," the government official said on the sidelines of a conference on agriculture Tuesday.

 

In India, State Trading Corp. issues tenders on behalf of the government to import wheat.

 

According to tender rules listed by STC, inspection of wheat grain has to be carried out prior to loading it onto the vessel by an authorised officer or accredited agency of the national plant protection organisation of the exporting country.

 

In the case of the US, this organisation is the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

 

The official said designated Indian authorities are giving similar quality certification for the country's mango exports to the US.

 

STC imported 5.5 million tonnes of wheat on behalf of the government in 2006, but none was offered by sellers from the US.

 

STC expects that bids could be more competitive price-wise if US-origin wheat is offered in its tenders.

 

The US is also keen to make inroads into India's wheat market.

 

The Indian government has estimated that suitable grades of US wheat will cost India about US$261/tonne including a freight charge of about US$75/tonne. Prices of all bids received in a recent tender to import wheat issued by STC were over US$265/tonne, with none offering wheat of US origin.

 

Later, two companies agreed to lower their prices to US$263/tonne, for delivery of some 306,000 tonnes of wheat in panamax vessels to the western port of Mundra.

 

The tender is yet to be finalised by the government.

 

Additionally, the tender also lists 31 types of weeds not present in Indian farmlands. According to tender rules, imported wheat should not have more than an average 100 of these weeds for every 200 kilograms sample drawn from a single consignment.

 

"The US sampling procedure is such that they can list out presence of weeds by grams instead of enumerating them. The Indian government has worked out a formula in consultation with US authorities wherein weeds in weight can be converted into numbers," an STC official said Friday.