Egypt wheat stocks sufficient to last until mid May – minister

Egypt has sufficient wheat supply to last until mid May, after cancelling two tenders last week amid tensions with traders over Egyptian policy on grain fungus ergot, supply minister Khaled Hanafy said Saturday.

Egypt’s state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), bought 60,000 tonnes of Romanian wheat on Friday.

Egypt, the world’s top wheat importer, is dependent on shipments from companies such as the international food commodities trader Bunge to meet domestic food needs. The country rejected Bunge’s cargo last month on the grounds that it contained traces of the ergot fungus, even though the country’s grain authority allows levels of up to 0.05 per cent. The move sowed confusion and frustration in the wheat trading world.

The initial rejection by Egyptian authorities appears to have started due to a disagreement between the country’s agricultural and trade authorities.

Although Egyptian ministries of supply and agriculture last weekend held a joint press conference to announce that it was allowing 0.05 per cent ergot, it could take a while for this decision to filter through the Egyptian bureaucracy.

GASC is understood to have been working behind the scenes with Bunge in an effort to overturn the decision.

“GASC are not to blame. They did not change rules. They want to keep all good suppliers on board,” one European grain trader told the Financial Times.

One GASC official said the grain authority was stuck between the ministries of trade and agriculture. “We are under the ministry of supply. GASC is stuck in the middle,” said the official.