SYDNEY, April 12 (UPI) -- Pakistan's rejection last year of a shipment of Australian wheat may end up costing it $30 million, the Australian reported Monday.
In December Pakistan hired Karachi-based Tradesman International to import wheat. TI then shipped in $35 million of Australian wheat to Pakistan.
But Pakistani port authorities wouldn't let it be unloaded, claiming it was infested with a fungus.
Tradesmen chief executive Haroon Suleman said the real reason was corrupt officials.
"There were certain people in Pakistan who were conniving with the stockists and the holders of (Pakistani) wheat because there was a shortage and the wheat was sold in the markets at the highest-ever prices in the history of Pakistan," Suleman said.
He is threatening legal action, seeking the return of a $1 million performance bond. The government has declared the deposit forfeit since the wheat was not delivered.
Suleman also seeks up to $30 million in compensation and costs, which included charges of more than $100,000 a day from the ships stranded for more than a month.
The disease has not been found before in Australian wheat and tests by independent Pakistani laboratories later declared the grain disease-free.
