STC is offering 120,000 tonnes on India’s west coast, MMTC 60,000 tonnes on the east coast, while PEC is offering a total of 160,000 tonnes on both the coasts.

The bids for first tender following lowering of base price for export of 2 million tonne (mt) of wheat from Food Corporation of India (FCI) stock will be opened on November 18.

Sources said state-owned trading agencies, MMTC, PEC and STC, have invited bids for 3.4 lakh tonne of wh-eat to be exported from Mudra, Kandla, Krishnapatnam and Kakinada ports. An empowered committee, headed by the commerce secretary, will approve the successful bidders.

This is the second attempt by the government to export wheat from its stock this fiscal after the first bids were rejected because of lower price last month. The state-owned trading firms had floated tenders for export of 1.5 lakh tonne of wheat. But the bids were subsequently scrapped because government agencies got a highest quote of only $269 per tonne against the base price of $300 per tonne.

FCI can export 2 mt of wheat till June 31, 2014, instead of March 31, 2014.

As reported by FE earlier, the food ministry had sent a proposal to the government again, requesting reduction in base price for wheat shipments to $260 per tonne, which was later approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. “As global prices have firmed up in recent weeks, we expect bids more than the base price for wheat exports,” a food ministry official said.

Meanwhile, higher wheat output this year in key exporting countries such as Russia, Australia, Canada and France, has pulled down the global wheat price to $260- $ 275 per tonne from $310- $ 330 per tonne last year.

Last year, due to global shortage, FCI had exported 4.5 mt of wheat and realised R7,000 crore at an average price of about $ 310 per tonne.