60,000 tonnes of Romanian wheat to feed the Middle East population in the coming period
Romania is one of Egypt’s important partners on grain market. Egyptian Ministry of Supply said it purchased 60,000 tonnes of Romanian wheat, following a tender that occurred last week.
Deputy Head of the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) Mamdouh Abdel Fattah said that the price of wheat stands at USD 186.55 per tonne, in addition to USD 4.33 in shipping fees per tonne, rounding off the total price to USD 190.88 per tonne, dailynewsegypt.com informs.
GASC announced two tenders for the procurement of wheat shipments in the past week. The first was announced on Thursday and was to expire on Friday, while the second was announced on Friday and was to expire on Saturday but the deadline was extended to Sunday. Despite the GASC’s request that suppliers extend the validity of their offers until Sunday in an attempt to attract more offers, the authority only received five offers on Friday and four on Saturday. Over the past 10 days, the GASC has cancelled two tenders to import wheat.
International traders and suppliers have been hesitant to take part in wheat import tenders, with uncertainty fuelled by Egypt’s new import regulations prohibiting the presence of ergot fungus.
Government agencies have failed to reassure suppliers. The Ministry of Supply and the GASC said last week they will accept wheat that contains a 0.05 percent quantity of ergot fungus, while, conversely, the Ministry of Agriculture said such wheat will be declined entry.
In December, authorities rejected entry of a French wheat shipment that allegedly did not meet import rules and benchmarks for ergot fungus.
Egypt is the world’s top importer of wheat, with some 10 million tonnes of imports each year. Along with the domestic production of wheat, this amount is used to provide subsidised bread to the country’s population of over 90 million people.