HAMBURG: The lowest price offered in the tender from an Ethiopian government agency to buy 400,000 tonnes of milling wheat was believed to be $243.90 a tonne c&f including transport to inland destinations for Russian wheat, European traders said on Thursday.

The offer was made by a local trading house. The tender had closed earlier in October with the technical aspects of offers submitted before prices.

Prices offered by mainstream trading houses were mostly around $320 a tonne c&f including transport to inland destinations in Ethiopia, with Russian and Ukrainian wheat mainly offered.

No purchase has yet been reported and the offers are still being considered, traders said. A previous tender for 400,000 tonnes of wheat from Ethiopia had closed in July with no purchase reported by traders.

Ethiopia is still struggling with the impact of drought which has devastated farms in some regions. Crops in Ethiopia and elsewhere in East Africa are also suffering from swarms of locusts.