New Delhi - The Central government may buy at least 300,000 metric tons of wheat from its latest import tender, a government official said Wednesday. "We should be buying at least 300,000 tons from the last tender floated by State-run MMTC Ltd.," the official, who didn't wish to be named, said. However the volume of purchases might be increased depending upon availability, he added. Monday, MMTC received bids for delivery of around 1.06 million tons of wheat from seven bidders at prices ranging between USD397-USD487.95 a ton. The official declined to give any details on the price at which the federal government plans to purchase wheat. India is planning to import around one million tons of wheat from international markets by March to shore up its buffer stocks. Three state-run trading firms, namely MMTC Ltd, PEC Ltd and State Trading Corp, have been asked to issue tenders to import the required quantity of wheat on behalf of the government. Wednesday, another government official said that other state-run trading agencies - PEC and State Trading Corp - might float the remaining tenders by mid-December. "PEC is most likely to float its tender by end of this month, while State Trading Corp will float it by (the) middle of December," the official said. Earlier, this year, the government had planned to import around five million tons of wheat, but to date has managed to purchase around 1.306 tons because of tight global supplies.

[Source: Dow Jones Newswire]