Baku, August 26 (AzerTAc). Turkey`s grain board will allow private companies to import 330,000 metric tons of duty-free European Union wheat this year as part of measures to ease price swings in the domestic market.
The licenses cover 230,000 tons of milling wheat and 100,000 tons of durum, the Ankara-based board, known as TMO, said Thursday in a statement on its website. The board is also considering other measures, it said, without specifying what.
“Although our annual production and stockpiles are sufficient for our country`s needs, private companies will be allowed to use an import contingency that is awarded to the TMO every year,” the board said in the statement on Thursday. “The move will contribute to stability in the local market.”
Wheat traded in Chicago, a global benchmark, as much as doubled since June as Russia`s worst drought in at least a half century, flooding in Canada and parched fields in Kazakhstan and the European Union ruined crops. While Russia already banned, Ukraine has postponed a decision to restrict sales.
Turkey`s wheat stockpiles stand at 2.23 million tons, more than the 2 million tons announced Aug. 10, the TMO said Aug. 19.
Turkey is expected to export 4 million tons of wheat in the 12 months ending in June 2011, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported this month, raising its previous estimate of 3.1 million tons. The country exported almost 4.4 million tons in the previous 12-month period.