December 19, 2003

New EU Tender To Import 250,000 MT Corn Into Portugal

The European Commission's grains management committee voted Thursday to open a new tender to import 250,000 metric tons of corn into Portugal, a European Union grain official said.

Speaking to OsterDowJones after the weekly meeting of the committee, the official said the tender would be open for bidding on Jan. 8 until March 24, and would form part of the E.U. abbatimento import quota.

Under abbatimento, the E.U. is obliged to import 300,000 tons of sorghum and two million tons of corn into Spain and Portugal every 12 months because of World Trade Organization agreements reached during the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations.