<div>India's state traders received bids above the floor price for wheat exports, trade sources said on 18 November, reflecting good response after a cut in the floor price intended to boost shipments from the world's second-biggest grower.<br /><br />Last month, India cut the floor by $40 a tonne to $260 for supplies from government stocks, to make exports more attractive to the Middle East and neighbours such as Bangladesh.<br /><br />The three state-run trading companies had all failed to sell in the last round of global tenders in October, when the $300 floor made Indian wheat expensive in comparison to rival supplies from the Black Sea.<br /><br />In Monday's tenders, PEC Ltd received the highest bid at $290 per tonne for its offerings on the west coast for shipment in December, while State Trading Corp. and MMTC recorded bids of $286 a tonne in their respective tenders.<br /><br />"Indian supplies have become on par with Black Sea origin," said Tejinder Narang, adviser at New Delhi-based trading company Emmsons International.<br /><br />Traders said supplies from the Black Sea were available at $280-$290 a tonne FoB.<br /><br />They said Indian wheat was benefiting from expectations that global prices would rise next year as supplies from the Black Sea fell.<br /><br />The Indian government stuck to its floor price of $300 until last month after managing to export nearly 4.5 million tonnes between August 2012 to March 2013 as part of its strategy to cut huge stockpiles.<br /><br />On November 1, India's wheat stocks stood at 34 million tonnes, three times more than the target for the Oct-Dec quarter.<br /><br />The high level of stocks at government warehouses, boosted by a series of bumper harvests since 2007, has forced the state-run Food Corporation of India (FCI), the main grain procurement agency, to store wheat under tarpaulins. <br /><br />(Reuters)</div>
