by PressEgypt plans to reduce wheat imports thanks to large domestic reserves
Egypt will be able to reduce imports in the current and next seasons
Egypt plans to reduce imports of wheat in the season 2021/2022. It should be noted that in the current period, the country has reduced the supply of foreign grain, and is not yet going to increase them. The government is hoping for a high harvest, which is favorable to the weather. It should be noted that for a long time, the country has been considered the largest importer of wheat.
This season, Egypt reduced imports by an average of 1%, its volume amounted to 11.6 million tons of wheat. Despite the decline, this figure is still 10% higher than the volume of purchases for 5 years — 10.5 million tons.
The GASC Authority, which deals with the supply of products and is the largest buyer of wheat in Egypt, announced the suspension of imports. The reason is sufficient stocks in the domestic market, which allows the purchase of products from local producers. Last month, GASC bought 2.9 million tons of wheat, plans to buy another 3.6 million tons, which is almost the same amount that was imported last season.
According to official information from the Egyptian authorities, the size of wheat stocks corresponds to the volume of domestic consumption needed for six months. The country has gradually reduced imports, beginning with 7 million tons, then 6.5 million, after 6 million tons. This season, thanks to good weather conditions, a high harvest is predicted, which will reduce the purchase of grain from foreign traders to a minimum.
The purchase of wheat for the new season has already started, Egypt has bought about 245 thousand tons of grain through tenders with delivery in a few months. However, for milling wheat, GASC refused to hold a tender. The department does not give an official reason, but traders believe that it was too high prices for the products. Since the previous tender the cost of sea freight has almost doubled.
Before that the analysts predicted that the world quotations would go down and consequently the supply would be less. However such a big drop did not happen. In addition, many importers expected Russian sellers to reduce grain prices, and the assumptions were justified. Despite this, the purchase was not very profitable for buyers, as they had to pay higher freight rates. Competitive offers for grain purchases also came from Romania, Ukraine and France.
In addition to wheat, GASC purchased 30 thousand tons of soybean oil and 10 thousand tons of sunflower oil. For this purpose, the directorate held an international tender, and the delivery is to be made in a few months on C&F basis.