Pakistan eyes India for first wheat sales

SINGAPORE, May 23 (Reuters) Pakistan is aiming to export wheat for the first time in more than two years, and it will bid on tenders to sell the grain to India, which is facing a shortage, a senior Pakistani government official said on Tuesday.

''We will have exportable surplus this year and India is in need of wheat. We will also bid for it,'' Fahim Akhtar Khan, managing director for Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation Ltd, told Reuters in an interview.

Khan added that the Pakistani government would decide by the middle of next month how much grain the country would be able to offer for overseas sales.

''We are expecting a good crop this year and we also have more than two million tonnes of carryover stocks. After meeting domestic demand, we will still have some surplus,'' he said.

In May 2004, Pakistan officially banned wheat exports. Before the ban, Pakistan found markets for its wheat in the Middle East and Africa, exporting 1.7 million tonnes of the grain in the fiscal year ending in June 2003.

India this year is in the market to import wheat for the first time in six years.

REUTERS CS SSC1219