Egypt, the world's biggest wheat importer, is keen to buy French grain but would like it more competitively priced at international tenders, the main state buyer said on Tuesday.

"I am calling for more competition and for French offers to appear more competitively in our tenders," Nomani Nomani, the vice president of Egypt's General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), said.

"Without a doubt, French wheat is one of our more strategic and stable sources," he said at a meeting organised by grain lobby France Export Cereales.

Egypt has bought heavily from Russia this year, but he said France remained a stable supplier.