New Tender of 100 Thousand Tons of Wheat

DAMASCUS, (ST)-The Director-General of Trade and Grain Processing Establishment , Mousa  Nawaf Ali, said in a statement to «Al- Watan Newspaper»:” the Establishment announced for a new  international tender to supply an amount of 100 thousand tons of soft wheat for flour. The tender will be on March 4 after its purchase of a quantity(100 thousand tons) of wheat on last January 29 under a tender also.

“The tender is universal , so it is non-specific origin and any state may make it because the contract is of the global market according to the specified conditions and those who met by offering the lowest price. The last tender was for the Ukraine and the price per ton where 298.70 euros including shipping and insurance fees and delivery in Syria which is equivalent to almost 30 million euros,” Mr. Ali said.

“The deal is to ensure the required quantities of wheat and the country’s commercial need and the strategic stock is associated with the show that what Syria possesses of this article is sufficient,” he stressed .

The director also pointed out that the total amount of imported wheat, by the Establishment during the past year amounted to about 750 thousand tons,  has been  achieved through several deals varied in prices and the maximum price agreed upon at the time was 307 euros per ton, by contrast, the  second tender for 2013 is also being organized next month within the context of the plan 2012, which included the approval to import about 1.5 million tons of this material, and thus the total import so far is 850 thousand tons.

“The current season, which is usually confined in June and July, that will determine the plan of import for 2013, which will start preparing with the beginning of next August where bodies concerned agree to import any required quantity, despite the presence of a lot of optimism that there is no need to import from abroad in the light of expectations this season that promises a good season this year, especially in the eastern region,” Mr. Ali clarified.

He pointed out that the Establishment faces some difficulties in the light of the sanctions imposed on the country despite the availability of foreign exchange. Among these difficulties are issues of obstruction in opening credit , and opening the bank credit gives to the supplier a timeout between two and three months to implement the contract and supply wheat.

“The Establishment  sometimes resorts to  international supervising companies  to ensure the conformity of the samples with the specifications agreed upon, including health conditions associated with issues of agricultural quarantine and other, where every shipment is checked to be sure of the safety of all shipments of execution of the contract, which typically range from 25-30 thousand tons of wheat,” Ali added.

Sh. Kh.