The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), it appears, has been hoodwinked to buy hard red wheat, according to experts who spoke about the TCP tender to the Business Recorder on condition of anonymity.
Closely analysing the tender, which was opened last week and subsequently finalised and orders placed, experts said in the recent much publicised tender, the TCP had bought 150,000 tonnes from an unknown Switzerland-based company, Agrico Trade and Finance, who actually offered 300,000 tonnes at 198.30 dollar per tonne.
They said the origin of their wheat was Russia, an unknown origin for Pakistan as there had never been any imports of Russian wheat.
All the sellers had to do was to produce some samples, which were promptly accepted by the tender committee and the award made, they alleged.
The prices of white wheat from both the United States and Australia were offered by the recognised international companies at prices ranging from 214 dollars to 224 dollars per tonne.
According to some of the suppliers from recognised sources, no white wheat is grown in Russia as all the production is classed as hard red wheat.
Since it is inferior to the US and Australian wheat, the prices of Russian wheat is much lower. The traders here are extremely surprised that TCP has contravened its own specifications and terms by awarding the tender to Agrico.
Some even expressed their opinion that if the TCP was going to accept red wheat, then they should have specified so and opened the doors for European, Ukrainian and US origin red wheat, which is much cheaper than white wheat.
Experts said perhaps the TCP officials were not aware of the difference between what they tendered for and what they were going to receive.
"It is only when the vessel arrives in Karachi it is seen by everyone that the wheat is red in colour and when the mills grind the wheat, they find it very hard. This could cause damage to their equipment, which is not geared to handle grinding of hard wheat," the said.
Mystery shrouds the buying of hard red wheat by the TCP. The question arises whether it was done knowingly or was the result of ignorance on the part of the tender committee members to differentiate between the hard red wheat and white wheat? The TCP will have to pay the price once the first vessel arrives in Karachi.
By doing so, they have now left the door open in all future tenders for a host of other "fly by night" companies to jump on the bandwagon and offer inferior wheat.
"Are we so desperate that there are no checks and balances or will the consumers have to settle for the darker colour "Roti", which we are not used to?" the experts asked.
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