November 5, 2009

Philippine feed millers rejected offers made Wednesday (November 4) at a tender for the supply of 45,000 tonnes of feed wheat due to high offered prices.

Offers at the tender ranged between US$222 and US$230 a tonne, cost and freight basis, compared with an earlier contract price of US$210/tonne, an executive from the millers group said.

"We will wait for better prices before we make another purchase," the executive said.

The group, which purchased around 200,000 tonnes of wheat last month, is expected to buy an additional 400,000 tonnes of wheat in the coming months, following extensive typhoon damage to the country's corn crop, traders have said.

Possible origins include the Ukraine and Russia, they said.

The Philippines imported around 1.3 million tonnes of wheat from November last year to June this year, when local corn prices soared to record levels following typhoon damage.