CAIRO: Egypt has imported wheat four times in October to meet a shortfall in the local wheat used in producing subsidized bread.
The amount of imported wheat during this month has reached 895,000 tons, mostly from Russia, France, Poland and Romania; a recent contract was signed Thursday to import 240,000 tons by December for $208 per ton.
The Ministry of Supply launches global tenders through which bids, from both local and international companies, are chosen according to “high quality and low prices,” Vice President of Supply Commodities Authority (SCA) Mamdouh Abdel Fatah told Youm7.
After the last deal, Egypt’s strategic reserve of local and imported wheat to produce subsidized bread will be sufficient until mid-April 2016, Supply Minister Khaled Hanafy told Youm7.
Hanafy noted that all imported wheat are always examined upon arrival at the Egyptian ports by international audit firms and the ministry’s technical committee, in order to make sure it conforms to the terms of the contract and to confirm its suitability for human use.
Egypt remains the World’s largest wheat importer, according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO.) The global organization said that Egypt’s wheat imports for 2015-2016 are “estimated at 11 million tons, about the same as the previous year and the average for the last five years.”
