prasad1
Active member
Indian flour millers are concerned that there is not enough wheat in the market to feed the insatiable demand for pizzas and pastas in the country. That has led them to place import orders of 500,000 tonnes — or one and a half times the weight of the Empire State building in New York — of premium Australian wheat since March.
This is the biggest such purchase in more than a decade, despite excess stocks. The millers' concern stems from unseasonal rains in February and March, which might hit wheat output at a time when sales of flour-based products such as pizzas is booming. Millers in India's southern ports were the first to place the orders.
Pizzas and pastas require high-protein varieties of wheat.
The millers got attractive prices for their orders, which has then prompted companies such as Cargill, Louis Dreyfus and Glencore to follow suit, said three sources directly involved in the deals.
The traders and millers could import a further 500,000 tonnes from France and Russia, where harvests are around the corner. The deals could push up benchmark prices that have already jumped on recent concerns about crop quality in the United States.
"There are strong chances French and Russian wheat will find their way to India because of attractive prices ... and if the euro goes down, I expect more French wheat coming to India," one source said.
Almost half of the quantity contracted so far -- bought at $255 to $275 a tonne -- has reached India and the rest is scheduled for July delivery, said the sources, who declined to be identified because they are not allowed to discuss trade-sensitive issues publicly.
Although rains and hailstorms wilted the Indian wheat crop, the world's second-biggest producer and consumer of the grain has large stockpiles accumulated after eight straight years of bumper harvests.
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2015/0...highes_n_7651046.html?utm_hp_ref=in-lifestyle
This is the biggest such purchase in more than a decade, despite excess stocks. The millers' concern stems from unseasonal rains in February and March, which might hit wheat output at a time when sales of flour-based products such as pizzas is booming. Millers in India's southern ports were the first to place the orders.
Pizzas and pastas require high-protein varieties of wheat.
The millers got attractive prices for their orders, which has then prompted companies such as Cargill, Louis Dreyfus and Glencore to follow suit, said three sources directly involved in the deals.
The traders and millers could import a further 500,000 tonnes from France and Russia, where harvests are around the corner. The deals could push up benchmark prices that have already jumped on recent concerns about crop quality in the United States.
"There are strong chances French and Russian wheat will find their way to India because of attractive prices ... and if the euro goes down, I expect more French wheat coming to India," one source said.
Almost half of the quantity contracted so far -- bought at $255 to $275 a tonne -- has reached India and the rest is scheduled for July delivery, said the sources, who declined to be identified because they are not allowed to discuss trade-sensitive issues publicly.
Although rains and hailstorms wilted the Indian wheat crop, the world's second-biggest producer and consumer of the grain has large stockpiles accumulated after eight straight years of bumper harvests.
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2015/0...highes_n_7651046.html?utm_hp_ref=in-lifestyle
