October 21, 2001	Sunday	Shaba'an 3, 1422

KARACHI, Oct 20: The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) said on Saturday it had received 13 bids in response to a tender for the export of 200,000 tonnes of wheat to be shipped in bulk, bags or containers.

“Bid prices are ranging between $92 per ton to $105.59 per ton, while total buying offers are over 350,000 tons...we would take a decision by Monday,” Sikander Kherio, a senior TCP official, told Reuters.

TCP had issued a sell tender on October 8 for 200,000 tons of wheat from Pakistani government-owned stocks.

Pakistan produced 18.9 million tons of wheat from its 2000/01 crop and also has 3.5 million tons stockpiled from the previous year’s bumper harvest of 22 million tons. Annual domestic wheat demand is 20.3 million tons.

The TCP sold over 271,000 tons of wheat through a similar wheat export tender in August.

Pakistan had exported over 700,000 tons of wheat as of Sept 2001 and planned to export one million tons of grains in 2001/2002 (June-July).—Reuters