We are ready to start exporting wheat to Egypt: India's Trade Minister

CAIRO – 15 April 2022:  India's Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said that his country is ready to start exporting wheat to Egypt.

"Egypt has adopted India as a supplier of wheat, we are ready to start exporting wheat to Egypt," Goyal wrote on Twitter.

He added in another tweet: “Egypt approves India as a wheat supplier. Modi Govt. steps in as world looks for reliable alternate sources for steady food supply. Our farmers have ensured our granaries overflow and we are ready to serve the world.”

To minimize the effects of the ongoing Russian-Ukraine crisis on Egypt’s grain stockpile, the Egyptian government has announced India as a new wheat supplier.

Egyptian Minister of Agriculture El Sayyed El Qusseir announced in a statement on Thursday that India has been recognized as a new country of origin for importing wheat within the framework of the state’s plan to open new sources of importing wheat as a strategic commodity.

Before the ratification, the Egyptian Ministry has sent a delegation headed by the chairperson of the Pest Risk Analysis Section at the Ministry Islam Farahat to India to study the feasibility of importing the Indian wheat to soften the effects resulting from the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, climate change crises and drought that may threaten food security.

Over the past several days, the Egyptian delegation was briefed on the Indian phytosanitary systems, inspection and control of grain exports and methods of pest control and resistance, said Farahat.

The delegation also visited grain stores in different regions like Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Mumbai, and other areas of wheat cultivation to check the export procedures and the government laboratories approved by the Indian Agricultural Quarantine, Farahat continued.