India buys only half of issued wheat tender
The government owned State Trading Corp in India will import 511,000 tonnes of wheat, an official told Reuters. This is only half of the 1 million tonne wheat tender that had been issued by the country to boost its domestic supplies.
The State Trading Corp last week received seven bids from firms, including Alfred C. Toepfer,
Cargill Inc., Concordia Agritech, Glencore AG and Louis Dreyfus of France, to
sell a total of 920,000 tonnes of wheat at between $320-$360 a tonne (including
some levies).
Too expensive
At the time, traders said
the government was unlikely to buy large quantities at such prices. The
government asked the seven firms to lower their bid prices, but none did.
Therefore, India decided to buy half the amount for $317 and $330, according to
an official.
Grain consumption
India, which is importing wheat
for the second year in a row despite being the world’s second-largest producer,
consumes around 72 million tonnes of the grain annually. It imported 5.5 million
tonnes of wheat in 2006. The country is expected to produce more than 73 million
tonnes in 2007, up from 69.48 million tonnes last year.
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