The country's new tender for import of 3 million tonne of wheat on Thursday elicited a lukewarm response with only eight companies submitting bids for the country's largest-ever wheat import contract. Australia's AWB Ltd, Cargill Inc of the US and Glencore AG of Switzerland are among the eight bidders, a government official said. | |
| No single bid has been made for the entire three-million-tonne import contract, the official told after a meeting with prospective bidders. |
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| In terms of quantity, AWB is the highest bidder. The Australian wheat exporter has bid for 1.22 million tonne wheat import. |
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| AWB's offer is "very competitive", a company official said, declining to give the exact bid price or other details. |
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| "We have put in the bid according to the tender specifications of the State Trading Corp," the Australian official said. |
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| The tender has been floated by State Trading Corporation to import wheat on behalf of the government. |
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| AWB has already been awarded a contract to export 500,000 tonne wheat-of which 100,000 tonne have already arrived on Indian shores. India is importing wheat to replenish its fast-depleting stocks and curb prices, which have flared up on reports of dwindling stocks. |
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| Only eight bids for a 3-million-tonne tender is abysmally low, narrowing down India's choice in shortlisting bidders, a Mumbai-based analyst said. The import norms specified in the tender are stringent, the analyst said. Rigid norms have already led to a delay in the previous wheat shipments from Australia to India. Shipments with around 400,000 tonne wheat from AWB have been put on hold on quality complaints. |
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| The bids, submitted both on a free-on-board and cost-and-freight basis, will be evaluated later on Thursday, the government official said. |
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