Egypt, the world's largest wheat importer, has bought 240,000 tonnes of Ukrainian, French and Russian or Kazakh wheat for March 11-20 shipment on a free-on-board basis, the main government wheat buyer said on Friday.

Nomani Nomani, vice chairman of the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), gave the following breakdown of the purchases:

-- 60,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat from Noble at $259.50 per tonne with freight costs of $14.92 per tonne

-- 60,000 tonnes of Russian or Kazakh wheat from Cargill, seller's option, at $262.90 per tonne with freight costs of $13.89 per tonne

-- 60,000 tonnes of French wheat from Bunge at $258.75 per tonne with freight costs of $18.17 per tonne

-- 60,000 tonnes of French wheat from Noble at $258.75 per tonne with freight costs of $20.17 per tonne

Since the start of the 2011/12 fiscal year on July 1, GASC's purchases have been dominated by Black Sea origin wheat.

GASC has purchased 3 million tonnes of Russian wheat, 180,000 tonnes of Romanian wheat, 120,000 tonnes of Kazakh wheat, 360,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat, 60,000 tonnes of Russian, Ukraine or Kazakh wheat at the seller's option and 60,000 tonnes of Russian or Kazakh wheat at the seller's option since the beginning of July.

It also bought 180,000 tonnes of French wheat and 240,000 tonnes of Argentine wheat.

In the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2011, GASC purchased some 5.58 million tonnes of French, U.S., Canadian, Australian and Argentine wheat.