June 29, 2006

 

India to import 2.2 million tonnes of wheat

 

 

India will import 2.2 million tonnes of wheat from five companies at prices ranging from US$190 to US$205 a tonne on a cost-and-freight basis, an official at State Trading Corp (STC) of India said Wednesday (Jun 28).

 

The imports will take place under a tender issued earlier this month by STC on behalf of the federal government.

 

"The government has directed us to issue supply offers to Glencore, ADM, Toepfer, Cargill and Concordia," the official said.

 

Details are being worked out.

 

The STC official said that despite a tight global market for wheat, the average import price for India will work out to around US$198/tonne, which the government considers reasonable.

 

He said the imported wheat is likely to be of mostly European, Argentinean and Canadian origin.

 

The companies offering US wheat were rejected for technical reasons.

 

One of the companies had offered to sell optional-origin wheat, which means American wheat could also land in India.

 

India will buy 720,000 tonnes of wheat from Toepfer, 550,000 tonnes from Glencore, 300,000 tonnes from ADM, 225,000 tonnes from Concordia and 405,000 tonnes from Cargill, the official said.

 

"The offer being made to these companies to supply wheat will be conditional to their meeting all the terms and rules stated in the tender," the official said.

 

This tender is the third in 2006 issued by STC to import wheat on behalf of the federal government.

 

Import orders so far total 3.5 million tonnes.