Syria to purchase 100,000 tonnes of soft wheat for reserves

Syria is seeking to buy 100,000 metric tonnes of soft wheat to boost its reserves, the Syrian General Establishment of Cereals Trade and Processing said.

The state agency will accept bids to supply the grain until July 25, Bassam al Hammed, head of the organisation’s foreign- trade department, said in a phone interview from Damascus today.

“We are seeking to import wheat from one supplier,” Hammed said.

Syria’s government imported about 1.3 million tonnes of wheat between the end of 2008 and early 2010, Hammed said. The Arabian nation invited bids last November to supply 27,366 tonnes of soft wheat that a Lebanese company had failed to deliver. That tender, which was reissued, will probably close this week, he said.

“We may import more wheat this year and we plan to swap hard wheat with imported soft wheat,” Hammed said.

Syria’s wheat production will total 3.6 million tonnes this year, Hassan Katana, director of statistics and planning at the Ministry of Agriculture, said May 21.