Indonesia buys Australian wheat despite fungus scare

Indonesia is still importing Australian wheat despite recent allegations by Pakistan that some shipments had been contaminated with a fungus, major importer Bogasari Flour Mills said on Tuesday.
Bogasari, Indonesia's largest flour mill with around 70 percent of the country's milling wheat market, said it expected to buy at least 40 percent more Australian wheat in 2004 than last year.
Indonesian authorities were on the alert for contamination of Australian wheat by Karnal bunt disease, but the infection had not been found in any shipments, Bogasari director Frankie Welirang said by telephone from Jakarta.
"At our place we don't find it (Karnal bunt contamination)," he said.
A steady stream of imports of Australian wheat was progressing as normal, although a discovery of contamination could cause a suspension of trade, he said.
Last week, Pakistan rejected four Australian cargoes totalling 150,000 tonnes of wheat on the ground they were contaminated by Karnal bunt disease.
AWB Ltd, Australia's monopoly wheat exporter, and the federal government have both said the country's wheat, one of the major supply sources for Asia and the Middle East, was not infected by the disease.
Government officials are seeking talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali on the issue. After Pakistan said second tests of the Australian wheat also showed contamination by the disease, Australia said it was also seeking tests by an independent, third country.
Karnal bunt disease produces foul-smelling off-colour wheat. While not dangerous to humans, it typically produces rejection by importers, bringing trade to a halt.
Welirang said Indonesia's imports of Australian wheat were expected to rise to the more-typical level of over two million tonnes in 2004 from last year's imports of about 1.35 million tonnes.
High freight rates are limiting Bogasari's imports from the United States in 2004, while last year's purchases from Australia were abnormally low because of the country's worst drought in a century.
Bogasari is one of Australia's biggest customers, normally sourcing 55 percent to 60 percent of its annual wheat imports from Australia.
Australia is the second-largest wheat exporter in the world after the United States.