KARACHI (January 30 2004): The Ministry of Food has postponed for a day a decision on a 150,000 tonne wheat import tender to assess availability of locally produced stock, an official said on Thursday.

The agriculture ministry had been due to announce the winner of a tender for 150,000 tonnes wheat at between $200 and $233 per tonne C&F issued on January 18, after a meeting of its wheat import committee on Thursday.

Ministry officials said the meeting had been postponed until Friday.

"We have decided first to assess available stocks and then go for a decision," said an official, who did not want to be identified. "Hopefully a decision either way will be made tomorrow."

A source in the food ministry said the delay came at the instruction of Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali after reports that Pakistan had stocks of at least two million tonnes.

The government announced plans last year to import about 500,000 tonnes of wheat to meet a shortfall and build strategic reserves after grain production missed target in the 2002/03 (November/April) crop year due to bad weather.

The imports were due to be completed in four to five phases over the next two months.

The Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corp (Passco) bought 150,000 tonnes of Australian wheat at $224 per tonne in a first tender in December, its first imports in four years.

Agriculture Minister Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind told Reuters the government would decide next month whether or not to issue a third tender.

"Arrivals of wheat from the new crop will start in second week of March in Sindh...so we will take a decision, either way, by the end of February," he said.

The government received six bids in the second tender and the Passco short-listed four potential bidders - three Australian and one Southeast Asian.

The ministry official said future tenders were now in doubt.

He said the two million tonnes of wheat available as of January 25 did not include imported grain scheduled to reach Pakistan in the third week of February.

"Also wheat arrivals from the new crop in Sindh province will start in second week of March, which leaves very little room for imports," he said.

Courtesy Business Recorder