Japan to buy wheat at tenders

Japan's Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday it planned to buy 110,000 tonnes of feed wheat and 1 million tonnes of feed barley in the fiscal year beginning in April at five import tenders under the simultaneous buy and sell (SBS) system. The first of the planned SBS tenders will be held on March 16 for 20,000 tonnes of feed wheat and 200,000 tonnes of feed barley, a ministry official said. In the current fiscal year, the ministry has bought an estimated 80,000 tonnes of feed wheat via SBS tenders, against its plan for 110,000 tonnes of purchases, he said.
The ministry has also bought an estimated 945,000 tonnes of feed barley via SBS tenders in the current fiscal year, compared with its plan for 900,000 tonnes, he added.
The ministry introduced the SBS system for import tenders for feed-use wheat and barley in 1999 so Japanese end-users could designate the origin, price and quality of the grain sought.