TCP gets 10 offers in 500,000T wheat import tender

LAHORE: Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) has received the lowest bid of $372 per tonne c&f for Karachi Port against tender for 500,000 tonnes wheat. The lowest price offered in the tender which closed on Wednesday has been for delivery in January 2023. The lowest bid was quoted for importing Russian-origin wheat.

Grain Flower DMCC has been termed lowest bidder for importing wheat through Gwadar Port at $377 per tonne. As many as ten trading houses were initially assessed to be participating in the tender. Highest bid offered in the tender floated by TCP was $397 per tonne. It was learnt that most of the wheat quoted for trading was of Russian origin.

Reuters reported around nine trading houses were initially assessed to be participating in the tender. Offers were optional origin but Russian wheat was expected to dominate the sourcing of tender participants.

The state agency TCP is still considering the offers and no purchase has been reported, traders

said. TCP is expected to award the tender later this week. Earlier in November 2022, the government of Pakistan gave go ahead to a deal worth $112 million to import 300,000 tonnes of wheat from Russia to meet its domestic shortfall.

According to the official data, government imported 0.123 million tonnes of wheat worth $52 million in October of this year. Official data suggests the country has imported 1.099 million tonnes of wheat worth $460.6 million from different countries during the first four months of the current fiscal year (July-October) to cater to local demand.

All these imports were made by the public sector. It should be noted that the federal government has estimated the country would be required to import 2 to 2.5 million tonnes of wheat this year to fulfil the local demand, costing around $1.3 billion.

Standing and stored crops over millions of acres of farmland were damaged in the devastating floods caused by abnormal monsoon rains this season. The floodwater will take months to dry out in southern Pakistan which might delay the cultivation of wheat and other crops for next season.