India finally awards wheat supply tender to Australia’s AWB

New Delhi, March 3: India has awarded a tender to Australia-based AWB Ltd, to import 5,00,000 tonnes of wheat, after the company has submitted the lowest bid, a senior food ministry official said on Friday.

“AWB has met the specifications and all issues have been sorted out,” said the official, who declined to be named. AWB set a price of $179 per tonne, including cost and freight, to supply the grain to five southern India ports. State Trading Corp (STC) had issued the duty-free tender in February, for delivery between March and mid-May in a bid to boost supplies and tackle spiraling prices in the states where wheat is not grown.

Around 1,50,000 tonnes of wheat is expected to arrive in the country by the end of March, the official said. “We expect five ships to come in by the end of this month, and each will carry around 30,000 tonnes.” The remaining 3,50,000 tonnes would be shipped in before the end of May.

Companies from Australia, France, the US, Russia, Canada and Europe were short-listed by the STC, in a process that analysts have attacked as being too little and late. The country’s new domestic wheat crop is already trickling into the markets. The wheat output this year, is estimated to rise to 73.1 million tonnes from 72 million tonne a year ago, but will be much lower than an earlier projection of more than 75 million tonnes.

The official added that the state-owned food corporation of India was planning to trade maize at multi commodity exchange (MCX) and national commodities and derivatives exchange (NCDEX). “We would like the FCI to trade on the futures exchanges,” he said.

“We are negotiating with both the MCX and NCDEX.”

—Reuters