September 16, 2015
Sugaronline | http://goo.gl/b3tTsM
Five companies have responded to the Ethiopian Sugar Corporation's latest tender for the acquisition of 75,000 metric tonne of sugar, the technical opening revealed on September 9, 2015, according to Ethiopia's Addis Fortune newspaper.
These companies have also managed to pass through the technical evaluation that took place days before. They have offered their prices in three options: one is Letter of Credit (LC) at site, which means the Corporation will pay the supplier in cash as soon as the document for the shipment is secured; the other options are LC at 12 months and 18 months, which means that the Corporation will pay after 12 months and 18 months of delivery.
Beating the price competition is Agro Corp, a company from India, which has offered the lowest price of US$383.5 per tonne for LC at site, and US$397.23 and US$405.24 for payment after 12 and 18 months, respectively. If the corporation goes for the lowest price from Agro, its order will be worth US$28.8 million.
Al Khaleej Sugar, which produces sugar in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Gulf, followed with the second lowest set of prices: US$388.26, US$400.91 and US$412.16 a tonne for LC at site, 12 month and 18 month, respectively. ED & F MAN, from the UK, offered US$409, US$424 and US$432 a tonne, respectively, for each option. The remaining two companies: Sucden Middle East and Nobel Resource have also offered their respective prices.
These companies' offers will remain valid for five days from financial opening, within which the Corporation expects to select its supplier.
"It is up to the decision of the bidding committee to select among the three offers," said Mesfin Melkamu, deputy director for corporate finance at the Sugar Corporation.
None of the bidders have complained about the process, he said, because of which the Corporation will pick one of the bidders as soon as its director, Shiferaw Jarso, has given the approval, said Mesfin.
Delivery of the sugar is expected between September and October, 2015, after which distribution will be available to beverage Industries, consumer associations, Merchandise Wholesale & Import Trade Enterprise (MWITE) and Et-Fruit, in consultation with the Ministry of Trade (MoT).
This purchase, which could be the last for this fiscal year, has come after disappointing domestic production in the last fiscal year. Plans to produce 12.2 million quintals from Fincha, Methera and Wonji sugar factories as well as from seven new factories that were expected to begin production were a huge failure with actual production amounting to only 3.6 million quintals, far short of the domestic demand of five million to 6.5 million quintals.
Factories expected to begin production this year include Tendaho I & II, Beles I & II, Kuraz I, Kessem and Arjo Dedessa.
Currently, MoT is making special holiday distribution of sugar throughout the country, with Addis Abeba alone getting 250,000ql.