The offer was made for one consignment in the tender by a little known regional trading company. The company also offered $274 and $278 a tonne c&f, they said. Consignments were said to be 100,000 tonnes. A total of eight trading houses participated in the tender. The other seven participants were all mainstream trading houses whose offers were considerably above the lowest price.
The lowest price offered was $299 a tonne c&f, traders estimated. This was followed by offers including $300, $305, $308.47 and $309.77 per tonne c&f. Origins in the tender were not given. Shipment is two months after the contract award, traders said.
Ethiopia is still feeling the impact of a continued drought that devastated farms in some regions. Ethiopia also hosts more than 900,000 people who have fled conflict, drought and persecution in neighbouring countries such as South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea.
The country has a large wheat import programme to cool domestic prices but has struggled to get some purchases completed because of contractual disagreements.