Japan's Ministry of Agriculture bought 1,500 tonnes of feed wheat and 2,750 tonnes of feed barley in a tender on Friday, a ministry official said, far less than the amounts it had sought. The ministry, which controls imports of key grains, originally planned to buy 20,000 tonnes of feed wheat and 100,000 tonnes of feed barley on Friday, its fourth feed grain tender in the year to March 2010.
The official would not comment on the shortfall in the amounts bought. Japan, the world's fourth-biggest wheat importer, has said it would buy 200,000 tonnes of wheat and 1.41 million tonnes of barley for feed use in fiscal 2009/2010. As there was only one bidder each for the feed wheat and feed barley, price data was not available after the tender, which was carried out under the simultaneous buy and sell (SBS) system and closed on Friday.
Shipments are for loading from May to the end of August, she said. Japan buys feed grains through SBS tenders, which allow discussion about a grain's origin, price and quantity between end-users and trading firms before they jointly submit a bid.