Egypt signs contract for 200k tons of Russian wheat in World Bank tender

Ahram Online , Thursday 29 Dec 2022

The General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), Egypt’s state grain buyer, has announced that it has contracted for 200,000 tons of Russian wheat under the World Bank-backed Emergency Food Security and Resilience Support Project.

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The purchase comprises five shipments of 40,000 tons of wheat at $339 per ton on a C&F basis, the GASC said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that the shipments should be delivered between 1 and 15 February.

In June, the WB approved a $500-million loan to support Egypt’s social protection net and food security amid the economic impact of the Russian-Ukrainian War.

Some $380 million of this loan will go to importing wheat, Minister of Supply and Internal Trade Ali Moselhi told the country's parliament in October.

The remaining $120 million, Moselhi said, will be directed to maintaining bread subsidies and reinforcing the country's wheat reserves.

Egypt, the world's top wheat importer, is seeking new international sources of wheat since the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war, as it was relying on both nations for 80 percent of its imported wheat.

The country relies heavily on wheat for making bread, a main staple of the Egyptian diet. Egyptians consume almost 100 billion loaves of bread annually, made with around 18 million tons of wheat, according to government officials.

Trade Minister Moselhi told Reuters that Egypt needs to import five million tons of wheat for the fiscal year 2022/23.

In early June, the GASC purchased 465,000 tons of wheat from Russia, Bulgaria and Romania in what is reportedly the country’s largest wheat purchase since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In early May, a deal also was signed to import 61,500 tons of Indian wheat.

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