Bangladesh to cancel tender to import 50,000 tonnes of wheat

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh is scrapping an international tender to import 50,000 tonnes of wheat, citing higher prices, two officials from the state grains procurement agency said on Sunday.

Agrocorp International made the lowest offer of $297.20 a tonne, including CIF liner out, in the tender, which was issued late last month by the Directorate General of Food, the procurement agency.

"We are cancelling the tender as the offer is high considering global wheat prices," said a senior official at the Directorate General of Food.

Another official at the agency said the tender could be reissued within a short time, confirming the scrapping of the tender.

Three other trading houses competed for the tender. SSOE offered $297.96 a tonne, Aston $297.89 and Phoenix Commodities $308.43 a tonne.

The state grains buyer received the lowest offer of $291.93 a tonne CIF liner out from trading house Swiss Singapore Overseas in its latest tender, closed last week.

Agrocorp International, however, secured a previous tender, quoting the lowest offer of $270.89 a tonne C&F liner out, in which it is supplying Russian wheat.

Bangladesh has turned to the Black Sea region for wheat because supply from India has dwindled as it meets growing domestic demand.

The south Asian country imports around 6 million tonnes of wheat, making it one of the world's biggest importers of the grain. Bangladesh's output has stagnated at around 1 million tonnes.

(Reporting by Ruma Paul)