EGYPT – Egypt’s state grain importer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), is back in the market with a provisional purchase of about 535,000 tonnes of wheat in an international tender.

Egypt ranks as the world’s top wheat importer with an annual intake of around 12.5 million tonnes with Russia and Ukraine contributing to 85% of the total wheat imports.

The current order will be sourced from Russia and comes a few days after previous purchases in January when GASC booked 200,000 mt of Russian wheat paying US$339/mt cost and freight (CFR) for February 1-15 dates.

The GASC confirmed the tonnage bought and shipment periods adding that the purchase is provisional as it awaits final approval from the World Bank, which is funding purchases from the tender.

GASC, however, elaborated that it was seeking an unspecified quantity of wheat with finance provided in the framework of the Food Security and Resilience Support Programme funded by the World Bank to help Egypt overcome its economic difficulties.

In addition, payment is on sight (immediate) with price offers sought on a Cost and Freight (c&f ) basis, which includes costs for ocean shipping.

Traders have already given the breakdown of the sellers in the tender, supplier company, tonnes sold, shipment period, and price per tonne.

From the breakdown, the shipment period will be done in two seasons dated Feb. 26-March 10 and March 11-20.

For the Feb.26-March 10 tender period, the traders outlined that 180,000 tonnes will be procured from the Grainflower supplier for $323.40 and a further 60,000 tonnes from the Aston supplier for $324.45.

Similarly, for March 11-20 period, the purchase will involve three suppliers from Russia broken down into 180,000 tonnes from Grainflower, 60,000 tonnes from Aston, and 55,000 tonnes from Sierentz at the cost of $322.80, $324.45, and $325.80 respectively.

As earlier revealed, GASC has already booked 4.1 million mt of wheat for delivery during 2022/23 MY, with almost all the amount booked in direct deals and the total figure slightly up compared to last year’s 3.85 million mt purchased by the same date.

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