Indian Pea Tenders

DELHI - Jul 29/10 - SNS -- India's state trading companies issued tenders this week for up to 100,000 metric tons (MT) of whole yellow peas packed in bulk.

The most interest element of the latest round of tenders is that one is for shipment through the end of October and specifically seeks 2010 crop peas from Canada or France.

This summer has seen a surge in tender activity from India's state trading companies, which are mandated to import pulses in an effort to control food inflation rates in the country.

Food inflation slipped during the week ending July 17, with the index for food articles up 0.6 percent to 299.3 (Provisional) from 297.6 (Provisional) for the previous week due to higher prices of fish-marine (3%), gram and milk (2% each) and mutton, urad, wheat, tea and maize (1% each). However, the prices of fish-inland and rice (1% each) declined.

The pulse index stood at 379.7 points, up 21.23% on the year. Pulse price inflation has averaged 32.29% during the past year, while overall food inflation has averaged 16.15%.