August 23, 2007

Iran tenders to buy feed wheat and feed barley

Iran, through the state-owned feed importer SLAL, has this week issued a tender to purchase 50,000 tonnes of feed wheat and 110,000 tonnes of feed barley intended for shipment on October and September.

Bidding deadline is until August 28 and origin was optional.

Traders were surprised that Iran was seeking wheat as the country has said it has an export surplus and even planned to sell two million tonnes of wheat to Iraq this year.

A trader said Iran's imports may most likely due to Ukraine's ban on grain exports. Ukraine is one Iran's main source of grains.

Ukraine's decision to ban wheat and barley exports following a poor harvest has turned several Middle Eastern importers to corn.

In August, Iran caused widespread surprise when it purchased around 360,000 tonnes of US corn, its first US corn buy in over three years.