East Asian importers buy record volumes of Indian wheat

East Asian importers buy record volumes of Indian wheat

London, 1 April (Argus) — Key importers in east Asia have stepped up their Indian wheat purchases this year, with record volumes scheduled to be shipped to South Korea and Vietnam in early April, following India's bumper harvest and declining wheat and corn arrivals to the region from other parts of the world.

About 72,600t of wheat are scheduled to be shipped to Vietnam by the middle of next week from India's Kandla port. At the same time, combined volumes of South Korea-bound wheat cargoes between mid-March and the first week of April were seen at 270,000t, line-up data show.

The Philippines, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar and Bangladesh — the primary buyer of Indian wheat — were also seen to receive cargoes from Kandla, as well as the port of Mundra, shipped between early March and April.

India resumed its wheat exports to South Korea this year after a six-year break. Its combined shipments since the start of the country's wheat 2021-22 marketing year in April 2021 and January 2022 hit 131,400t. South Korea last imported large volumes of Indian wheat in 2013-14, when exports totalled 546,200t.

Exports to Vietnam also picked up this year for the first since 2014-15, totalling 15,700t in