MMTC cancels 5,000 tn desi chana sale tender

State-run MMTC has cancelled its desi chana sale tender and will float a new one by December, a senior government official said.

"Traders said it was too early. The shipment would arrive only by December, so we have decided to hold it (sale tender) for some time," the official said.

He said the company would float a new sale tender towards the year-end. Late last month, the company had floated a tender to sell 5,000 tonne imported desi chana.

MMTC had bought the 5,000-tonne chana consignment from Singapore-based RV International at $524-$529 a tonne for November-December delivery.

According to MMTC, 3,000 tonne Australian-origin chana is expected to arrive in November at Mumbai and Kolkata ports. The rest is scheduled to arrive in December at Kolkata and Chennai ports.

The sale offer floated by MMTC was in response to the second pulses import tender that the agency had floated a month ago. In the first tender to import 110,500 tonne pulses, the agency had received four bids.

All the bids, however, were rejected on the ground that prices quoted by bidders were Rs 8,000-10,000 a tonne, higher than domestic prices.

In the second tender, it had asked for 15,000 tonne chana, but was able to buy only 5,000 tonne. It then floated a third tender to import 1,500 tonne each of moong or lentils and urad or black matpe, but had to cancel that as well because the bids received were too high.