Ethiopia recently announced a tender for 400,000 tonnes of milling wheat for use in humanitarian assistance programs throughout the country. Bids are due Oct. 24, with delivery expected by February 2018, according to an Oct. 13 Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) report filed by the Foreign Agricultural Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The USDA indicated that the tendered amount will be divided into three tranches, totaling 200,000 tonnes, 125,000 tonnes and 75,000 tonnes.
The primary source for the wheat is expected to be the Black Sea region, the USDA said, noting that the region “is generally one of the least expensive options.”
“With the exception of food aid, nearly all wheat coming into the country in 2016 came from the Black Sea region, with Romania, Ukraine and Russia as the top three suppliers,” the USDA said.
As of early September, Ethiopia had imported nearly 630,000 tonnes of milling wheat in 2017, the USDA said. The total included approximately 120,000 tonnes of U.S. wheat food aid, valued at about $23 million.
In August, the government of Ethiopia tendered for 70,000 tonnes of wheat to be used in the country’s productive safety net project. Earlier in the year the government awarded contracts to three international grain suppliers to deliver 400,000 tonnes of milling wheat for the country’s subsidized bread production program, the USDA said.
