Singapore-based Olam International made the lowest offer at $283.07 a tonne, including CIF liner out, in a Bangladesh tender that opened on Monday to buy 50,000 tonnes of wheat, a food official said. Five bidders took part in the tender, the fourth for wheat issued by the state grains buyer earlier this month as part of its planned imports of 900,000 tonnes in the year to June 2012.
Shipment is in 40 days after signing the deal, following approval by the cabinet committee on government purchases. The offer is $8.97 per tonne higher than the last tender, in which India's Emmsons International was the lowest bidder with an offer at $274.1 a tonne. Still, the offer is lower than previous wheat purchases at $329.11 and $309.11.
Apart from tenders, Bangladesh is to import 100,000 tonnes of wheat from Ukraine at $320 a tonne, including CIF, in its first government-to-government wheat deal with Kiev. Bangladesh plans to speed up wheat imports to build state reserves, taking advantage of the slump in global prices, top procurement official Mohammad Badrul Hassan told Reuters earlier this month. Rice and wheat stocks at government inventories stand at more than 1.5 million tonnes, the highest level in a decade, boosted by the previous year's hefty imports and record crops.