PEC to import wheat from Australia at $397 per tonne

State-owned trading firm PEC on Friday decided to import 1.5 lakh tonnes of wheat at $396.9 per tonne from Australia-based J K International.

"We have so far finalised a contract of 1.5 lakh tonnes of wheat at a weighted average price of $396.9 per tonne," an official source said.

The imported wheat, to be delivered at Indian ports by March 10, would be supplied by J K International, the source said. PEC had floated a global tender last month to import up to 3.5 lakh tonne of wheat.

It had received six offers from global suppliers such as US-based Cargill and Switzerland's Glencore for supplying wheat at a rate ranging between $395.88-483 per tonne.

J K International had offered the lowest price of $395.88 per tonne for supplying up to 65,000 tonne of wheat at Mundra port. It had, however, made a total offer of supplying up to 2.5 lakh tonne.

Interestingly, the contracted price of PEC is lower than the average price of $400.19 per tonne at which MMTC decided to import 3.425 lakh tonne of wheat last month.

The government had decided to import 23 lakh tonne of the grain during 2007-08. Orders had already been placed for import of 16.485 lakh tonne by STC and MMTC.

India, the world's second largest producer of wheat, is importing the food grain for the second year in a row to increase the buffer stocks. The government had imported 55 lakh tonne of wheat in 2006.