NEW DELHI: The Central Government has partially relaxed the ban on sugar exports, permitting companies to sell the commodity overseas with prior government approval.

The nature of restriction on sugar exports has been changed from "not permitted'' earlier to "unless specifically permitted for export by the DGFT,'' according to a notification issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade.

The government had banned sugar exports last month till the end of this financial year, as part of measures to check rising prices of essential commodities.

Bids for wheat import

The State Trading Corporation on Thursday received eight bids for its four-lakh-tonne global wheat import tender that aims to augment buffer stocks.

"We received bids from eight global companies,'' an STC official said.

None of the eight companies that responded offered to supply the entire quantity, even though all the offers put together exceeded the four lakh tonne quantity sought by the tender.

The minimum offer price stood at $200 a tonne on Cost and Freight (C&F) basis.

The wheat import aims at augmenting the buffer stock situation as the Government could only procure 92 lakh tonnes of foodgrain against a target of 162 lakh tonnes this year.

The eight companies that have bid for the tender were AWB, Cargill, Glencore, Concordia, Agrico, Agri Crop, Toepfer and Sufflet. The highest offer of 3.4 lakh tonnes came from Cargill. Australian wheat monopoly AWB offered 2.2 lakh tonnes.

All the participating companies offered wheat of various origins. The offers will remain valid for acceptance till August 11, the date for finalising the contract after technical evalution.

The STC is the designated wheat import agency. So far, it has contracted 35 lakh tonnes of wheat, whose import was allowed by the government ealy this year after a gap of six years.

Price band

The price band quoted by the participating companies ranged between $210 and $245 a tonne, a trade official said.

The minimum price is supposed to be offered by Agrico at $210 dollar, said the trade official.

The price band quoted by Cargill, which offered the biggest quantity, stands in the range of $233-245, while the band offered by AWB stood at $216-230 a tonne.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail