Egypt buys 180,000 tons of Ukrainian, Russian wheat, in first 2016 deal

Egypt purchased Tuesday its first imported wheat cargos in 2016 after the government decided to allow up to 0.05 percent ergot, a common grains fungus, in wheat shipments.

The state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), said on its website that it had bought 180,000 tons of wheat through a public tender on a free-on-board basis, to be shipped 10-20 August.

The GASC website gave a breakdown of the purchase as follows:

60,000 tons of Ukrainian wheat from Louis Dreyfus at $172.19 per ton.
60,000 tons of Russian wheat from Louis Dreyfus at $173.42 per ton.
60,000 tons of Russian wheat from Aston at $173.48 per ton.

Egypt’s agriculture quarantine authority had previously rejected wheat shipments for containing trace levels of the ergot fungus, which made international traders lose their appetite for tenders by the world’s largest buyer of wheat.

Egypt has enough strategic reserves of the commodity to last until mid-January 2017, supply minister Khaled Hanafi said last month.

Egypt has procured five million tons of domestic wheat, around 25 percent more than the targeted amount for this year.

A parliamentary commission that was formed end of June has been tasked with looking into allegations that local wheat procurement figures are inflated, which may reveal corruption.