Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- India, the world's third-biggest importer of wheat last year, will decide next month if the South Asian nation needs to buy more grain from overseas, a government official said.

India has bought 1.3 million tons since July to build reserves. The government may not purchase more this year as supplies are enough to meet demand, farm minister Sharad Pawar said last week. It had earlier planned to buy 5 million tons.

Food ministry officials will meet next month to assess the stockpiles at state warehouses before deciding on imports, the official told reporters yesterday at a conference in Goa, asking not be identified.

A decision by India to resume wheat imports may spur gains in global prices that have more than doubled in the past year on smaller harvests in the main producing nations. Pakistan may invite bids today to import 1 million tons, adding pressure to shrinking global inventories.

``We need to see what India needs to do and if Pakistan comes in,'' Alastair J. Dickie, director of crop marketing at U.K.'s Home-Grown Cereals Authority, said in an interview at the conference. ``If India wants to buy even 2 million tons more, that's going to be a problem.''

Reserves

Wheat futures for December delivery gained 2.8 percent to $8.74 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade yesterday. Wheat has more than doubled in the past year and reached a record $9.1125 on Sept. 12. Global demand is forecast to exceed output for the seventh time in eighth years.

India expects to have 5 million tons of stockpiles by April 1, more than the 4 million needed for emergencies, Food Corp. of India said on Sept. 12. The country held 10.9 million tons of wheat in state warehouses on Sept. 7, sufficient to last until July, according to Food Corp. The government-owned company is the nation's biggest buyer of grains from domestic farmers.

Trading Corp. of Pakistan, the nation's biggest state-run buyer of commodities, is seeking to buy 1 million tons of wheat to keep prices affordable until the new crop arrives in May, Ashfaque Hasan Khan, the government's economic adviser, said Sept. 17.

To contact the reporter on this story: Pratik Parija in New Delhi at pparija@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: September 22, 2007 08:23 EDT