KARACHI, April 16: Pakistan is likely to sign a deal by next week to supply Bangladesh with 100,000 tons of wheat at $130 per ton, an official from Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Supply Corporation (PASSCO) said on Wednesday.

The official, who declined to be identified, said Pakistan was offering such a low price per ton for the wheat in an effort to get a new market in Bangladesh, which traditionally buys its wheat from India.

“The deal is in progress and hopefully it will be finalized in a week or so,” the official told Reuters.

“The Bangladeshi government contacted us earlier this month for 100,000 tons of wheat supplies...we offered $130 per ton FOB Karachi price,” said the official.

“PASSCO offered a price to Bangladesh which is even less than it has been offering to local buyers just to tap a new market for Pakistani wheat,” he added.

Last month PASSCO sold 300,000 tons of milling wheat from the 2002 crop for export at Rs8,625 ($149.30) a ton to seven local buyers.

But after the shipments are made PASSCO pays back the buyers a maximum of Rs2,500 per ton under the government’s export refund policy.

Exporters and shippers here said they had struck deals with foreign buyers to export all the purchases they had made from PASSCO last month.

Hamid Gharib, an exporter who bought 125,000 tons of wheat from PASSCO, said wheat shipments to East Africa, the Philippines, Vietnam and Middle East were scheduled from April to June.

“The FOB Karachi prices quoted by the exporters are in a range of $127 to $130 per ton,” Gharib said.

EGYPT DEAL: Another wheat trader said a Pakistani firm was also negotiating with an international trading firm to export 55,000 tons of wheat to Egypt at $135 per ton FOB Karachi.