News
10.10.2012
Syria's Hoboob says buys 100,000 tonnes Ukraine wheat
Reuters. Syria's state-run General Establishment for Cereal Processing and Trade (Hoboob) said on Monday it bought 100,000 tonnes of soft wheat from a Middle Eastern trading firm amid a reluctance of foreign banks, shipowners and grain traders to sell and transport grain to the country.
The wheat is Ukrainian and was bought at 287 euros ($370) a tonne, on a cost and freight basis, a Hoboob source told Reuters by phone.
"The wheat was purchased from a Middle Eastern trading company," he said.
Syria had on Sept.13 bought 50,000 tonnes of wheat in a tender seeking 100,000 tonnes. Traders had said that all four bids presented in that tender were from Lebanese trading firms and no international traders had participated.
This latest purchase, also from a Middle Eastern company, underlines the reluctance of international traders to participate in Syrian tenders.
Wheat is excluded from the Western sanctions imposed on Syria because of the government's attempts to suppress the uprising.
But traders say difficulties in financing purchases have frozen Syria out of the international grains market and led to a series of small wheat deals over the past few months, often arranged by dealers in the Middle East and Asia.
Hoboob had issued the tender to purchase and import 100,000 tonnes of soft wheat of bread-making quality on Sept. 17, with shipment sought within two months from the opening of a letter of credit on the purchase.
