HAMBURG: A Syrian state buyer has issued a tender to buy 200,000 tonnes of wheat flour on the international market, European traders said on Monday.
Supply should take place within 180 days after the opening of a letter of credit on the purchase. The tender deadline is July 10.
The tender, from Syria's General Company for Mills, said payment would be made from Syrian money frozen in European and Arab bank accounts.
"Bidders should present a document from the relevant body in the country that has frozen Syrian money, which would allow for the finance of these imports from the frozen money," the tender said.
Food is excluded from Western trade sanctions imposed on President Bashar al-Assad's government, which is fighting to suppress a two-year uprising, but banking sanctions have made it difficult for traders doing business with Damascus.
After difficulties securing grain supplies last year, Syria has been more successful at purchasing grain this year through middlemen setting up deals, traders say.
Syria's state grains agency said on June 27 it had bought around 550,000 tonnes of domestically produced wheat this season and did not expect to buy from foreign markets.
But a United Nations food agency, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), has said Syria's wheat output is expected to fall further this year after last year's harvest was 37 percent below average.
The FAO said Syria's wheat harvest had fallen to 2.3 million tonnes in 2012 from 3.6 million in an average year.
The Syrian government also tapped the international market for rice and sugar in late June, issuing two tenders. (Reuters)
