Availability and price of imported wheat and pulses

New Delhi, Oct 4 (UNI) The Government today informed that against tender of import of wheat for 55 lakh MT, a quantity of 16.8 lakh tonnes has touched Indian ports as on date.

Seven vessels are currently at discharge at Chennai, Tuticorin, Vizag and Mundra ports, having a total quantity of 3,52,673 MT of wheat, out of which 2,15,978 MT has been discharged by yesterday.

Six vessels have arrived with 2,97,560 MT of wheat at Mundra, Chennai, Kandla and Vizag ports and are under fumigation/quality-check/berthing.

Eleven vessels that have sailed to Indian ports with 5,53,004 MT of wheat are scheduled to arrive by October 20, 2006.

Two vessels with a total quantity of 92,000 MT of wheat were received in April/May, 2006.

Nineteen vessels with a total quantity of 9,38,023 MT of wheat have been received by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) by yesterday.

Wheat prices at the retail level have remained steady at Delhi, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Jaipur, Mumbai, Bhubaneshwar, Patna, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram, during the week ending September 28, 2006.

Wheat futures prices for October and November 2006 contracts at Rs 969 per quintal and Rs 990 per quintal respectively as on September 28, 2006 are lower than the spot price at Rs 1004 per quintal.

Futures prices for December 2006, January, February and March 2007 contracts are higher than the spot prices on the same date.

On the other hand, NAFED has so far received 44,344 tonnes of pulses of the contracted quantity of 49,300 tonnes at Chennai. This comprises 33,924 tonnes of urad and 10,420 tonnes of moong.

NAFED has also disposed of 26,438 tonnes of urad and 3,179 tonnes of moong at Chennai, Bangalore, Indore, Lucknow and Jaipur at average prices of Rs 33.82 and Rs 30 per kg respectively.

The balance of the contracted quantity of urad and moong is expected to be shipped shortly, according to an official release here.

UNI BBS SRS RN1425