The highest bid received by state owned trading company PEC in its latest tender for wheat exports is USD 285 per tonne, according to sources.
Last week, three tenders for exports of 1 lakh tonnes of wheat were opened. This included two PEC tenders-- 35,000 tonnes of wheat from Krishnapatnam port and 30,000 tonnes from Vizag port. An MMTC tender of 35,000 tonnes of wheat from Pipavav port was also opened.
"The highest bid of USD 285 per tonne has been received for 35,000 tonnes of wheat against the same tendered quantity from Krishnapatnam port," sources 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 is 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.
