High price prompts govt rethink on wheat imports

The government is still to take a decision on importing more than 300,000 tonnes of wheat on account of the high price quoted by global trading firms, an official source said today.

The decision on cancelling or importing the grain may be taken tomorrow, the source added.

The State Trading Corporation (STC), the government's chief canalising agency for such purchases, had floated the tender on December 10 and bids were valid till December 22.

On December 17, STC received offers from three multinational firms for importing wheat at a maximum price of $579.6 a tonne, a jump of almost 45 per cent over the price decided by two other government agencies barely a few weeks ago.

Swiss firm Glencore, US trading company Cargill and Germany's Toepfer submitted bids in the range of $459.9 to a record of $579.6 per tonne for supplying about 315,000 tonnes, a trade source had said.

An official of a Mumbai-based multinational agri-trading company said it was unlikely that STC will import the wheat at such a high price.

The commerce ministry had earlier this month allowed PEC Ltd to import 150,000 tonnes of wheat at $396.9 per tonne.

Earlier, on November 23, MMTC Ltd decided to buy 342,500 tonnes at an average price of $400.19 a tonne.

Australia-based JK International will supply wheat to PEC, while Cargill and Glencore will supply to MMTC.

The government had decided to import 2.3 million tonnes of the grain during 2007-08.