Egypt buys 240,000 tonnes of Russian wheat after amending terms

Egypt’s state grain buyer General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) bought 240,000 tonnes of Russian wheat on Thursday in a tender, its first successful purchase since abolishing a “zero ergot fungus” rule that had halted its previous three tenders.

GASC bought 180,000 tonnes of Russian wheat at an average price of $187.11 per tonne cost and freight, and another 60,000 tonnes at $186.80 per tonne cost and freight, traders said.

Earlier, suppliers had held off on making offers, saying they needed more guarantees that the import authorities would tolerate negligible levels of the common grain fungus in their cargoes.

“There was an amendment made so that final inspection of the wheat would be at the load port, and that is much better than what it was before,” one Cairo-based trader said.

The offers were made by Louis Dreyfus, Olam, Union and Aston, they said.

Russia will resume supplying its wheat to Egypt after Cairo scrapped the restrictions on the imported commodity it imposed earlier, RIA news agency cited Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov as saying on Friday.

Source: Reuters