August 7, 2006

No specific offers of US wheat in India tender

India's State Trading Corp (STC) has not received any bids specifically offering US wheat in its latest buy tender seeking 400,000 tonnes, a senior company official said Friday (Aug 4).

He said a technical evaluation has revealed that nearly all eight bids offering a total volume of close to 1.4 million tonnes are in line with the norms stipulated in the tender.

"No company has specifically offered wheat from the US, but two bidders-- Concordia and Cargill--have named several countries as possible sources of origin for wheat, and the US is among them," said the official.

He said Cargill has offered around 340,000 tonnes of wheat at an average price over US$233/tonne, cost and freight, Indian ports. Concordia has offered 43,000 tonnes of wheat around US$217.11/tonne, Cost and Freight.

Switzerland's Agrico Trade and Finance is the lowest bidder in terms of price quoted, offering 200,000 tonnes of wheat at US$210-US$212/tonne, cost and freight.

The second lowest price bid was from Singapore-based Agrocorp International, around US$213/tonne, but it offered only 90,000 tonnes of wheat.

Australia's AWB Ltd has offered 220,000 tonnes of wheat at US$216.10-US$230.20/tonne, said the STC official.

Officials from the bidding companies could not be reached for comment.