Despite the Sugar Industry Group being expected to grab one of the offers from the recently closed sweat bid, the corporation has annulled the bid and switched it up to another round restricted bid in order to obtain a lower price point for the commodity.
Prior to this, it was signaled that the Industry Group had managed the recent bid swiftly and even was able to get a better rate compared with the previous unsuccessful and lengthy patterned regular bidding processes.
However, the Industry Group wasn’t content with the offer tabled and as sources explain, it wanted a lower price point for the commodity.
On the recent restricted international tender for ‘plantation white sugarcane’ that attracted about seven companies including four new comers, opened the financial document of four companies, who qualified for the technical evaluation. Despite being new to the Ethiopia bidding process, the US company, Osirius Group offered a competitive rate for the 200,000 metric tons of Brazilian sugar.
However, the corporation has disclosed early this week that it canceled the bidding process on the aim of better option as it said for bidders via the cancelation letter.
The latest information Capital secured from the Sugar Industry Group indicated that it has refloated another round of restricted tender for selected companies that have shown their interest in the past to supply the basic commodity for Ethiopian households.
According to the information, the latest tender that was issued on Thursday June 2, the Industry Group demands to buy 200, 000 metric tons of the sweat and the bid will be opened in the second week of June.
Regularly the corporation is engaged on importing the product at competitive bid to fill the market gap that could not be attained by local production.
As far as the budget year that will come to an end in five weeks time is concerned, it will not see the Industry Group buying the product despite floating the bid on multiple occasions.
The latest move of India, which is the second supplier of sugar after Brazil, to limit its export until the coming production season is expressed by experts to have a ripple effect on the price increase in the product.
The country annually imports up to 350,000 metric tons of sugar to address the gap. For the budget year SC targeted to produce 413,000 metric tons.
Sugar Industry Group said that in the budget year the corporation planned to supply about 720,000 metric tons of sugar for consumption.
The sugar demand has been growing from time to time and it is estimated that the country’s annual sugar demand stands at 1.2 million metric tons. Thus the remaining gap is covered by other importers who have special permit from the government and those who have franco-valuta privileges.
