Egypt’s GASC Buys 300,000 Tonnes Wheat

Egypt’s state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), said on Saturday it had bought 300,000 tonnes of French, Russian and Romanian wheat in a tender for shipment between June 5 and June 15.

Egypt, the world’s biggest importer of wheat, bought 60,000 tonnes of French wheat from Glencore, 60,000 tonnes of French wheat from Soufflet and 60,000 tonnes French wheat from Cargill, Mamdouh Abdel Fattah, GASC vice-chairman, said.

GASC also bought 60,000 tonnes of Russian wheat from Cargill and 60,000 tonnes of Romanian wheat from Nidera, he said.

The wheat was purchased at an average price of $221.39 a tonne on a cost-and-freight basis.

Traders gave the following breakdown of the purchase:

-60,000 tonnes of French wheat from Glencore at $206 a tonne free-on-board (fob) and $13.50 a tonne freight

-60,000 tonnes of French wheat from Soufflet at $208.44 a tonne fob and $12.65 a tonne freight

-60,000 tonnes of French wheat from Cargill at $208.50 a tonne fob and $12.65 a tonne freight

-60,000 tonnes of Russian wheat from Cargill at $212.50 a tonne fob and $9.64 a tonne freight

-60,000 tonnes of Romanian wheat from Nidera at $213.99 a tonne fob and $9.10 a tonne freight

Egypt started its local wheat procurement season on Tuesday with supplies minister Khaled Hanafi saying up to 3.7 million tonnes of Egyptian wheat would be purchased.

The local purchases are expected to up the country’s strategic reserves to September.

Source: Egypt’s Independent