India to buy more wheat: Pawar

Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Friday said the government had finalised import of 1.2 million tonne wheat through two tenders floated by the State Trading Corporation. The government will float fresh tenders to import additional wheat, he said.

"Though prices (wheat) are falling since last two-three days, we'll not hesitate to import more wheat to build our buffer. We'll float new tender," said Pawar on the sidelines of a national seminar on 'Emerging Issues in Food Management'.

Pawar said, the second tender to import 3 million tonne wheat had elicited lukewarm response. India had awarded a 5,00,000-tonne wheat import contract to Australia's monopoly wheat exporter AWB in February and the STC floated a second tender in March to import additional 3 million tonne.

In the second tender, bids worth only 2.6 million tonne were received.

Declining to give the break-up of the quantum of wheat India is importing from the two tenders, he said details are with the STC.

The country may allow private players to import wheat once the government imports are over.

He said the government cannot compromise on India's food security.

Prices of commodities like wheat and sugar have stated falling both in India and overseas, he said.

Currently, India does not plan to import sugar but the country may look at liberal export and import regime in some of the commodities.