ETHIOPIA – Two firms have tabled a total offer of 3.88 billion birr (US$123.7M) to supply the Ethiopian government with 600,000 metric tons of wheat to avert the commodity shortage in the country.
The procurement is divided into two separate bids, where the 400,000 metric tons of the supply is procured on behalf of Ethiopian Trading Business Corporation, meant for market stabilization.
The 200,000 metric tons of wheat will be purchased on behalf of the National Disaster Risk Management Commission (NDRMC).
In this regard, the bid for the supply of 400,000 metric tons was divided into four 100,000 metric ton lots. For this one, Hakan Agro gave the lowest offer of US$214.44 and US$218.44, per ton, for Lot 1 and Lot 2, respectively. This makes its total offer rise to US$85.77 million.
The second least offer for the 400,000 metric tons came from AGRO Corp, which gave US$221.47 and US$222.97 per ton, for Lot 3 and Lot 4 respectively. On this separate bid, 11 suppliers have submitted their offers.
Moreover, for the supply of the 200,000 metric tons, Aplas Importer Plc has given the lowest total offer of US$43.6 million.
Looking into the unit least prices, Aplas gave US$218 per ton for Lot 1, followed by a second least offer of US$219.55 per ton from Agro Corp.
In this bid, the supply will be used for relief efforts with 10 international wheat suppliers having participated.
The Public Procurement and Property Disposal Service (PPPDS) which floated the bids, is currently evaluating the offers from the suppliers.
The Ethiopian government buys wheat, edible oil and sugar through competitive bids and distribute to the public with subsidized prices.
Recently the government imported 3M litres of refined sunflower oil and 30M litres of palm oil from the Indonesian Company, Pacific Interlink through the Ethiopian Industrial Inputs Development Enterprise.
In addition to that they imported four million quintals of wheat to combat the galloping inflation.
Currently, Ethiopia spends annually around one billion dollars on wheat and fertilizers imports.
The Ministry of Agriculture has announced plans to end wheat import by introducing mechanized farming and helping small-scale farmers engage in irrigation agriculture.
