HAMBURG: An Ethiopian government agency is believed to have received only one offer in a tender to buy 400,000 tonnes of milling wheat which closed on Tuesday, European traders said on Thursday.

One trading house is believed to have offered the full 400,000 tonnes at around $313 a tonne c&f, traders said in initial assessments.

Two trading houses were believed to have submitted offers in a separate tender for 30,000 tonnes of milling wheat which closed on April 15, they said. Participants in the 30,000 tonne tender were said to be Promising International and Falconbridge Resources.

No purchases were reported and offers are still being considered.

Ethiopia is battling the impact of drought, which has devastated farms in some regions. Crops in Ethiopia and elsewhere in East Africa are also suffering due to swarms of locusts.

But Ethiopia has struggled to buy wheat in international markets in recent months.

In January, the Ethiopian government cancelled deals to purchase about 600,000 tonnes of wheat agreed in international tenders in November 2020 because of contractual disagreements.

“There is still some uncertainty regarding the Ethiopian tenders and I think mainstream trading houses decided to stay away from the 400,000 tonne tender,” one European trader said.

“In past months, tenders have been repeatedly awarded to small companies not really known in the market which offered very low prices, but then could not deliver.” The 30,000 tonne tender seeks transport to inland warehouses in Ethiopia. Finance for the purchase is being provided by the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) and other aid organisations, traders said.