NEW DELHI: The Government on Wednesday further relaxed quality norms for imported wheat to enable more private agencies to bid for the global tender for 30 lakh tonnes, floated by the State Trading Corporation (STC) on Monday.

The import is to meet the buffer requirement for the Public Distribution System as what production and procurement showed a decline this year.

In the last order for five lakh tonnes for the southern States, only the Australian Wheat Board could meet the "stringent" norms. Now the STC, apart from relaxing the norms for acceptable limits of pesticides, has come with out an addendum saying the standards for remaining pesticidal residues will be as per the Codex norms.

Fungal ergoty and dwarf-bunted grains not exceeding 0.01 and 0.005 per cent by weight will be acceptable. Earlier, experts say, ergots and dwarf bunted grains — not found in India — were not acceptable. The tested weight for each 100 gm of wheat has also been lowered. The acceptable moisture content has been raised to 13.5 per cent.

The presence of deoxynivalenol (DON) toxin up to 30 parts per billion (ppb) and aflatoxin up to 30 ppb has been allowed. Fungal pathogens argemone mexicana and lethyrus sativus, however, remain unacceptable.

The easing of norms will enable wheat from the United States, the European Union, France, Russia and Canada to enter India.

The STC notification allows fumigation of the cargo before export with aluminium phosphide and methyl bromide. In-transit fumigation has to be done with methyl bromide under certification from the exporting country. This condition has been imposed to enable the U.S. to compete as methyl bromide is not used in that country.

This was done also to clear the remaining five lakh-tonne consignments from the Australian Wheat Board that were slow in coming because of India's "stringent" specifications, sources said.

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