Saturday, July 1 2006 10:45 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Toronto: In its biggest purchase from Canada in the last 10 years, India will buy more than one million tonne wheat from the country between September this year and January next.

India will import 7.2 lakh tonnes of hard Prairie wheat from the the Canadian Wheat Board while the Ontario Wheat Producers' Marketing Board will sell three lakh tonnes of soft Ontario wheat.

Canada got the contract through global tender issued by the India's State Trading Corporation. The commodity is expected to arrive in India between September this year and January next year.

Confirming the deal, CWB spokeswperson Maureen Fitzhenry told sources that the board had sold 7.2 lakh tonnes of milling wheat to India.

The price of the deal was not disclosed, but top grades of western wheat were selling for about US$ 235 a tonne Thursday. Lower grades were fetching about US$ 100 a tonne.

Hard prairie wheat is typically used to bake Canadian-style white bread while soft Ontario wheat is used for many Asian-style breads.

"They (India) have even been an exporter of wheat from time to time," Fitzhenry said.

"So the fact that they've entered the market with some demand this year is significant," he said.

Rick Steinke, Director (Market Analysis) of the CWB, said India has imported 3.5 million tonnes of wheat from all sources so far this year, its highest level of imports since 1982-83, when it bought 4.3 million tones on the world market.

The Indian government earlier decided to import wheat to curb spiraling wheat prices and the move invited widespread criticism from various quarters.