July 26, 2006

India sees up to 846,000 tonnes wheat delivered by end-August

The Indian government expects delivery of up to 846,000 tonnes of wheat in a total of 15 shipments into various ports by the end of August, an official statement said Tuesday (Jul 25).

However, traders said the arrivals are unlikely to have any impact on local prices since the imported wheat is only meant for government's subsidised sale programmes from January next year. Government still has stocks to run these programmes until December.

The Indian government has placed orders for the import of 3.5 million tonnes of wheat by Jan 2007. So far just 92,000 tonnes has arrived at Indian ports, none since first week of May.

"Two ships, each carrying around 38,000 tonnes of Australian wheat are expected to reach Indian ports by the coming weekend," the statement said.

Two more ships, carrying 65,000 tonnes each of Australian wheat, are on their way to Mundra on India's west coast and are expected to arrive by the first week of August.

Another ship carrying 40,000 tonnes of imported wheat will arrive in Chennai in south India by early August.

"In addition, about 10 more ships carrying between 40,000 tonnes and 60,000 tonnes of imported wheat are expected to reach Indian ports by end of August 2006," the statement said.