Saudi Arabia's state grains buyer has issued a tender to buy 330,000 tonnes of hard wheat for delivery next March and April, it said on Wednesday.

The tender, which will be the last wheat tender for 2011, is due to close on Friday, state news agency SPA quoted Waleed el-Khereiji, director general of the state-run Grain Silos and Flour Mills Organisation (GSFMO), as saying.

The total of six shipments will be distributed evenly to the ports of Jeddah and Dammam.

Saudi Arabia, also the world's top oil exporter, in 2008 abandoned a plan to achieve self-sufficiency in wheat and now plans to be 100 percent reliant on imports by 2016, to save its water resources.     

The country expects to import 1.9 million tonnes of wheat this year and to increase that slightly in 2012, Khereiji said in October.

The kingdom also plans to raise wheat storage capacity to 3.2 million tonnes, enough to cover its annual wheat consumption of about 2.9 million tonnes. - Reuters