December 13, 2004

Pakistan TCP May Hold Wheat Tender After Christmas

The Trading Corp. of Pakistan will take the Christmas holidays into consideration before finalizing a date for an import tender for 500,000 metric tons of wheat, a senior executive said Friday.

"We plan to consider shortly what's the best time to do the tender. However, we will have to consider the Christmas holidays in late December before finalizing a date for the tender," he said.

The government's Economic Coordination Committee late Thursday approved a plan to import 500,000 metric tons of the grain in January.

The government, through TCP, has imported 926,000 tons of wheat in two tenders over the past few months from Australian, U.S. and Russian companies.

The imports were aimed at stabilizing high flour prices after the country's wheat production in the current season fell to 19.7 million tons, below the targeted 20 million tons.

In the new season, Pakistan expects to produce 20 million tons of wheat in the crop that will be harvested by April 2005.