A new attempt to purchase food grain for the State Reserve has failed. Only two companies placed their offers at the tender contest announced by the Agency for Public Procurement & Humanitarian Aid for September 7. However, the price asked by the suppliers surpassed the authorities’ expectations. The Agency’s director Ion Turcanu told Friday’s meeting of the Commission for Emergencies that the Ungheni-based Speranta Moldovei JSC is ready to supply 20,000 tonnes of wheat for 3,979 lei/tonne. The second company, a Lithuanian one, is ready to sell 5,000 tonnes of wheat for 3,356 lei/tonne. Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev believes this is ‘extortion’, used by some groups that are interested in raising artificially the price of wheat. He advised the Agency for Public Procurement & Humanitarian Aid to think twice before accepting the offers, and look for new solutions to replenish the grain reserves. The State plans to purchase 50-55 thousand tonnes of wheat for the State Reserve at the price of 3-3.2 lei/kg, depending on gluten content. As a result of the tender contests held earlier, the government bought only 3.8 thousand tonnes from domestic producers. To ensure the food security of the country 350 thousand tonnes of food grain are needed this year. The authorities announce that 190 thousand tonnes were already purchased. The rest will be supplied from imports. The Government has recently approved the Regulation on imports and sales of grain and cereal products, which provides exempting these imports from customs duties and VAT until August 1, 2008.