State-owned trading firm STC has received six bids for its tender to export 1.60 lakh tonnes of wheat from FCI godowns, with the highest price being quoted at USD 282.62 per tonne.
"The highest bid offers a rate of USD 282.62 per tonne for 50,000 tonnes of wheat against the tendered quantity of 1.60 lakh tonnes," a senior government official said.
Wheat will be exported from Mundra port and shipment period would be from January 18 to February 18, the official added.
The highest price was quoted by Vitol, while LDC, Emmsons and others traders have also given their prices, the official said.
This is the second round of bid for export of wheat procured by Food Corporation of India (FCI) after government lowered the floor price to USD 260 per tonne from USD 300 per tonne on October 30 last year to boost shipments.
The highest bid in the second round of export of wheat so far was at USD 289.90 per tonne.
All the three trading agencies STC, PEC and MMTC are floating tenders for export of wheat and so far bids for seven tenders have been opened.
The government plans to sell 2 million tonnes of wheat from FCI's surplus stock in tranches by June. The Corporation had 36 million tonnes of wheat as of October 1 compared with the actual requirement of 21.1 million tonnes.
In 2012-13, the government earned USD 1.4 billion from export of 4.2 million tonnes of wheat by PSUs. Indian wheat fetched an average price of USD 311.38 per tonne in the previous financial year.
