M A I N   N E W S

Global bids invited for wheat import

New Delhi, April 30
The State Trading Corporation (STC) today invited bids from global suppliers to import 1 million tonne of wheat, the second successive year when India is buying the foodgrain from overseas to boost domestic stocks.

In view of the likely shortfall in domestic procurement of the foodgrain, the STC today floated a global tender for the import of 1 million tonnes of wheat by July this year.

Wheat consignments would be offloaded at designated ports of Mundra, Kandla, Chennai, Vishakhapatnam/Kakinada and Tuticorin, the tender posted in the STC website said.

The tender will close on May 10, 2007, it said, adding that the grain should be of crop year 2006-07 and 2007-08 of any country of origin.

Wheat procurement as on yesterday stood at 78.5 lakh tonnes out of the total target of 151 lakh tonnes. Procurement by government-run agencies such as the Food Corporation of India is likely to fall short by 25 lakh tonnes.

India imported 55 lakh tonnes of wheat last year after a six-year gap to augment stocks for distributing the grain under the PDS and other welfare schemes.

The STC seeks 3.2 lakh tonnes of wheat at Mundra, 2.4 lakh tonnes at Kandla, 2 lakh tonnes at Chennai, 1.6 lakh tonnes at Vishakhapatnam/Kakinada and 80,000 tonnes at Tuticorin. This would be made during the period May-July, 2007.

Parcel size at Mundra should be of 25,000-75,000 tonnes, while for other ports it has been fixed 25,000-50,000 tonnes.

“The STC reserves the right to increase or decrease the quantity at each port at the time of finalisation of contract”, it said. — PTI

We’re ready to meet wheat shortage: Pawar
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 30
Even as union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar today hinted at wheat import to strengthen food security, head of the commodity market stated that had the Food Corporation of India entered the wheat futures, it could have procured more from the farmers.

“We are ready to meet the shortage by imports as we need to strengthen our food security,” Pawar said during question hour in the Lok Sabha.

He said the state governments of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh had to ensure proper procurement of wheat from farmers to meet its scarcity which was leading it to consider imports. Observing that the three states had “not even together procured 25,000 metric tones” of wheat, he said these states had even not met their own requirements through procurements.

However, the managing director and CEO of the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchanges P.H. Ravikumar said deficit procurement requirement could be met through commodity exchanges. He said the FCI could enter the futures market and ensure food security.

Reacting to ban on wheat and rice futures trade to control inflation, he said the decision was political one and not out of economic rationale.

Ravikumar said the minimum support price should be based on the harvest month futures prices and if there was any likely shortfall in production the government could watch the wheat futures and take timely action for imports.

Countering the arguments that farmers are the real beneficiaries of the futures market, he said several studies had been carried out which prove to the contrary.

He pointed out that farmers associated with the Haryana Marketing Federation by trading in futures were assured of a sum of Rs 20 per quintal higher than the MSP and part of the profits redistributed to them.

Banning futures trade in wheat and rice, finance minister P. Chidambaram said a five-member committee headed by planning commission member Abhijit Sen had been asked by the government to study “the extent of impact, if any, of futures trading on wholesale and retail prices of agriculture commodities”.

Pawar said there was no decline in the wheat production as it had gone up from 69 million tonnes last year to 73.75 million tonnes this year and the total procurement was between 71 and 72 million tonnes.