Wheat rate today: Pakistan buys 365,000 tonnes at $348.83, about Rs 96.70 a kilo landed

The Trading Corporation of Pakistan has finalised its first wheat import tender of the season: 365,000 metric tonnes at an accepted price of $348.83 a tonne. Bids came in between $348.83 and $369.95. Seven suppliers were involved. Agrocorp took 55,000 tonnes at the lowest bid, M/s Olam 55,000 tonnes at the highest price, and six other suppliers matched the lowest price.

What that is in rupees

At Tuesday's interbank rate of Rs 277.22 to the dollar:

That is the cost and freight price at the port. It does not include port handling, inland transport, milling loss, the miller's margin or provincial levies, all of which sit between the ship and the atta bag in your shop. Use the currency converter if the rupee moves before the cargoes arrive.

The shipping window

• First tender issued 8 September, opened 16 September.
• Second tender for 185,000 tonnes opens 28 September, minimum bid quantity 60,000 tonnes.
• Shipment window 11 to 31 October.
• Arrival deadline 20 November.
• Discharge at Karachi or Gwadar.

The revised total target is 550,000 tonnes, cut from an original 750,000.

Why Pakistan is importing at all

Lower crop output last season left a shortage, and the provinces asked the federal government to import to keep supplies adequate and avert local shortages. Wheat is the one commodity where a shortfall shows up in the atta price within weeks, because the milling and distribution chain carries very little buffer stock.

The arrival deadline of 20 November matters. Wheat sowing in Punjab and Sindh runs through November, and the support price signal farmers get this autumn decides next year's acreage. Importing into a sowing season is the kind of thing that can hold the retail price down now and depress planting for next April.

The other pressure on your atta bag

Punjab's flour millers announced a province-wide strike this week over permit rules and fines of up to Rs 5 million. A milling strike takes atta off shelves faster than any import can replace it, because the imported grain still has to pass through the same mills.

The details are here: flour millers announce Punjab-wide strike over permits and Rs 5m fines.

Fuel is the other input. Diesel moves every tonne of wheat from port to mill to shop, and it is at Rs 422.08 a litre after Monday's revision, down Rs 1.96. Track it on the diesel price page.