Egypt’s agriculture ministry has restructured their quarantine office following anger and confusion by traders over rejected wheat tenders. Those tenders contained trace amounts of ergot. U.S. Wheat Associates Steve Mercer says when a former Egypt government grain buyer was in charge, those tougher standards were instituted which caused suppliers to avoid the tenders.
He says since then, that government official has left and the standards have been corrected.
Mercer says Egypt is the world’s largest importer of wheat and currently they’re getting most of it from Russia and Ukraine. He says it’s lower quality but is cheaper mainly due to the higher U.S. dollar. Mercer says however there is an emerging higher quality wheat market in Egypt the U.S. is prepared to supply.
Mercer says another factor helping Russia and Ukraine hold onto the Egypt wheat market is the low transportation cost of that coming from the Black Sea Region. He says it’s currently a dollar per bushel less than U.S. wheat.
