Iran's state feed agency SLAL is tendering to buy corn and soyabean meal, European traders said on Wednesday, needed to feed the country's large livestock herds as private importers struggle with trade financing due to Western sanctions.
The purchase tender for 150,000 tonnes of corn and 100,000 tonnes of soyabean meal grain sought shipment in May/June and the closing date for offers was said to be early next week, the traders added.
Other European traders later said SLAL had also bought a consignment of about 55,000 tonnes of Australian-origin feed wheat in the past few days, adding that a previous 55,000 tonne consignment of optional-origin wheat was said to have been purchased by the state agency last week.
Western sanctions, aimed at Iran's disputed nuclear programme, do not target food shipments, but financial measures have frozen Iranian firms out of much of the global banking system.
Sanctions are making it difficult for importers to obtain letters of credit or conduct international transfers of funds through banks.
"The state is being compelled to step in with feed purchases as the private sector feed wheat buying is still at very much below normal levels because of the financial disruption of the sanctions," a European trader said. SLAL was expected to start buying hundreds of thousands of tonnes of feed grains, traders told Reuters last week.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.