Bangladesh issues tender for 50,000 tonnes of wheat

Bangladesh's state grains buyer issued a tender on Wednesday to import 50,000 tonnes of wheat as part of efforts to boost reserves, a procurement official said, reports Reuters. The last date of submission of offers is November 21 and the wheat is to be shipped within 40 days of signing the contract. Bangladesh plans to speed up wheat imports to build state reserves, taking advantage of a slump in global prices, procurement official Mohammad Badrul Hassan told the news agency last month. The front-month Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures contract has fallen from a 2011 peak of $8.93-14 per bushel in February to $6.30-14 Wednesday. Bangladesh received a lowest offer of $283.07 a tonne in a previous tender which opened on October 24. 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. Rice is the staple food for Bangladesh's 160 million people while wheat consumption is rising, with domestic production having stagnated at nearly 1 million tonnes. Bangladesh, which buys 3.0-3.5 million tonnes of wheat a year, switched to cheaper Black Sea suppliers after India banned exports in 2007 amid a global shortage. Domestic prices of the staples are easing due to plentiful stocks and after neighbouring India last month freed up exports of two million tonnes each of common rice and wheat, the bulk of which is expected to end up in Bangladesh. Still, the government is grappling with high inflation. The annual rate climbed to 11.97 per cent in September on a 13.75 per cent surge in food prices.