Wheat import tender deadline extended

The State Trading Corporation has extended the deadline for submitting bids for the 1 million-tonne wheat import tender to May 21 from May 10, a government official said today.

"The bids will now remain valid till May 30," the tender document said.

The state-run trading house has also changed the delivery schedule asking for the cargoes from July to August 15 to coincide with the wheat harvest in the European Union and Black Sea region.

It had earlier sought the deliveries between May and July. STC had floated the import tender on April 30 and bids for the same were to remain valid till May 18.

At the time when the tender was floated, industry officials and experts were sceptical about the response. They had said the government should have floated the tender in July once the EU and Black Sea crop came into the market.

Experts now say extension of the deadline and changing the delivery schedule may witness greater participation and help bring down the total cost of bids as there would be more crop in the global market following the harvests.

The import tender has been floated even when India is harvesting its own wheat crop and the Centre is targeting 15 million-tonne procurement. The government had till Friday bought only 8.55 million tonnes of wheat from farmers compared with 9.04 million tonnes in the year ago period.

Wheat procurement is lagging behind last year's levels despite a projected increase in output.

India is likely to produce around 73.7 million tonnes of the food grain in 2007 compared with 69.4 million tonnes produced last year.

Minister of State for Food and Public Distribution Akhilesh Prasad Singh had said the government's total wheat procurement in 2007 is seen a little over 10 million tonne and that India may need to import 4-5 million tonnes to meet its domestic requirement.

After a gap of six years, the country last year turned one of the largest wheat importers of the world and imported 5.5 million tonnes of the commodity.