Egypt has agreed to acquire 180,000 tonnes of wheat from India, according to Supply Minister Aly Moselhy, a transaction that is part of the country’s efforts to diversify its wheat supply.
Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer, is seeking for alternatives to Black Sea grain exports, which are being disrupted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Egypt’s main wheat suppliers have been Russia and Ukraine.
Egypt, which significantly subsidies bread for its 70 million people, has seen import costs rise as a result of the Ukraine conflict.
In May, Moselhy stated that Egypt had agreed to acquire 500,000 tonnes of wheat from India, but that no deal had been signed.
Because of decreasing domestic production, India restricted wheat exports in May, but allowed exceptions for nations such as Egypt that require food security.
‘According to what the supplier said, the condition was that the wheat be at the ports before it was available,’ Moselhy said on Sunday.
‘We agreed on 500,000 tonnes, but [the supplier] only has 180,000 tonnes in the port,’ he explained.
Egypt is also in talks with Russian suppliers for a wheat purchase agreement, according to Moselhy.
Egypt is also exploring for ways to extract more flour from its grain, according to Moselhy, including increasing the extraction percentage for wheat used for subsidised bread from 82 percent to 87.5 percent.
It intends to save approximately 500,000 tonnes of imported wheat while importing 5-5.5 million tonnes of wheat for the fiscal year 2022/23, he noted.
Moselhy stated on Sunday that current wheat reserves are sufficient for 5.7 months following the acquisition of 3.9 million tonnes from the local harvest.
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