State Trading Corp of India (STC), MMTC Ltd and PEC Ltd on Monday received 18 bids, mostly from international trading firms, including Louis Dreyfus and Ameropa. The bids, which ranged from $373 to $599 per tonne, were valid until Thursday.
"We have extended the bids until Nov 17," Reuters news agency reported quoting a unnamed government official.
Confirming the move, another government official, who is directly involved in the process, said the three firms were in the process of informing the suppliers. "We have been informed of the government decision to extend the deadline," Reuters said quoting an unnamed Mumbai-based trader with the Indian arm of a global trading firm.
MMTC chairman and managing director Sanjiv Batra on Wednesday said his firm was unlikely to place an order due to high prices quoted in the bids.
The decision by the world's largest rice importer :country-region Philippines :place to buy 600,000 tonne of the grain in December, its largest ever single buy, has pushed prices up.
Monday, PEC received seven bids, MMTC got six and STC received five bids to import rice. The bidders have offered rice varieties from Pakistan, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar.
The import was necessary following an around 15 million tonne fall in rice production during the kharif sowing because of drought in several parts of the country.
As per government estimates, India's rice production during the kharif season this year is expected to be around 69 million tonne, down from almost 85 million tonnes last year.
Thursday, the International Grains Council (IGC), estimated that India 's total rice production during the kharif and rabi season might go down by 14% to around 85 million tonnes in 2009-10 due to drought and floods. Though production shortages are also seen in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines, the sharpest fall in output is expected to be in India , the report said.
The London-based global grain body pointed out that the production fall in India might also bring down the world's rice output by two per cent to 435.1 million tonne this year.
Rice output in neighboring countries Bangladesh and Pakistan may decline by 2.6% each to 30 million tonne and 6.2 million tonne, respectively in 2009-10, the report said. In Vietnam, the staple food grain output may drop by 2.2%, while both Indonesia and Philippines are likely to see a marginal slump during this season, the report said.
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