HAMBURG - A government agency in Pakistan has issued a new international tender to purchase and import 320,000 tonnes of wheat, European traders said on Monday.

The tender from the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) closes on Nov. 3.

The wheat can be supplied from optional origins and shipment must be organised so that all the grain arrives in Pakistan by Jan. 31, 2021. The minimum offer is 100,000 tonnes.

The TCP has regularly bought wheat in the global market in past weeks, aiming to improve local supplies and cool prices.

In its last reported wheat tender on Oct. 16, Pakistan is believed to have bought about 340,000 tonnes of wheat. 

Pakistan's government permitted wheat imports in June to reduce domestic wheat and flour prices amid tight local supplies.

Separately, the Pakistan government’s Economic Coordination Committee, its top economic decision-making body, said it had been informed that the TCP should be able to secure 1 million tonnes of wheat through international tender purchases up to January 2021.

The committee will also consider raising the TCP’s mandate for wheat purchases from 1.50 million tonnes to 1.80 million tonnes.

The committee decided too that 300,000 tonnes of wheat should be imported on a government-to-government basis from the Russian federation by another Pakistani state agency, PASSCO.

The committee also approved a request from Pakistan’s Ministry of Food to import another 320,000 tonnes from Russia under a government-to-government scheme either by PASSCO or TCP.

It was decided as well that further tendering of wheat could be stopped and that the TCP could instead use government-to-government deals for additional procurement of wheat.

Because of the arrival of Pakistan’s new crop in March 2021, the committee decided no vessel of imported wheat should be arranged either in the public or private sector beyond February 2021.

(Reporting by Michael Hogan in Hamburg and Gibran Peshimam in Islamabad, editing by Kirsten Donovan and Mark Potter) ((michael.j.hogan@thomsonreuters.com; +49 172 671 36 54; Reuters Messaging: michael.hogan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))