Egypt to import 360,000 tons of wheat from Russia, Romania

CAIRO - 3 August 2023: The General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) said it had reached an agreement to purchase 360,000 tons of Russian and Romanian wheat through an international tender.

In a press release on Wednesday, the authority said this purchase falls within the framework of the Supply and Internal Trade Ministry's strategy to enhance its stocks of staple commodities.

The deal includes 60,000 tons of Romanian wheat and 300,000 tons of Russian wheat, the authority noted. 

The Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI)' Chamber of Grains Industry affirmed today that the state managed to secure strategic reserves of all basic commodities, especially wheat, stressing that wheat stockpile is sufficient for six months.

Tarek Hassanein, chairman of the chamber, said the Supply and Internal Trade Ministry took preemptive steps to secure strategic reserves of wheat in implementation of the directives of political leadership.

He cited the decision to increase the price of wheat ardeb to LE 1,500, a move that encouraged farmers to supply more than 3.8 million tons to the ministry's warehouses.

Despite Russia's decision to walk out from the grains deal, the ministry managed to diversify sources of wheat imports to cover 23 countries, including France, Germany, Romania, US and Bulgaria, he added.

He unveiled the ministry's plans to set up new silos with a capacity of 600,000 tons each, bringing total storage capacity in silos affiliated with the ministry to one million tons.