AWB Ltd, Australia's monopoly wheat exporter, has won a contract
worth about US$267 million to supply China National Cereals, Oils
and Foodstuffs Corp. It is its biggest order from China in at least
eight years.
The 1.5 million-ton deal for milling-grade wheat announced on
Monday follows an order 11 months ago from the Chinese central
grain-buying agency for one million tons, Melbourne-based AWB said
in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange.
Additional orders may be placed to plug domestic shortages of wheat
suitable to make bread, dumplings and other flour-based food
staples, spokesman Peter McBride said. More purchases may help to
ease a global oversupply that's contributed to a 15 percent slide
in Chicago wheat futures prices this year.
"We believe China will continue to be an importer, depending on its
stockpiles and production levels," said McBride. "The size of any
imports is the unknown."
AWB said in the statement that the shipping program for the new
contract was already underway and would extend into the new
year.
The government said on Monday that wheat imports jumped more than
18-fold in the first 10 months of this year to six million metric
tons when compared with the previous year.
China chose Australian wheat over supplies from North America
and Europe because of Australia's "quality and freight advantage,"
McBride said.
(Xinhua News Agency November 23, 2004)