Traders are refusing to offer wheat to Egypt, the world’s biggest buyer of the grain, following the country’s move to ban imports with traces of a naturally occurring fungus.
The General Authority for Supply Commodities received no offers in a tender on Friday, according to four people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorised to speak to the media.
The country, which buys wheat to subsidise bread for its more than 90mn people, has gone back and forth this year over whether to allow any ergot, which is poisonous only in large quantities, in grain cargoes. That sowed confusion among traders and led to fewer offers and higher prices at its tenders. The nation rejected at least two wheat cargoes in the past month, prompting Romania’s Cerealcom Dolj to say it will shun tenders.
“Egypt should carefully consider the situation of its food market and make a decision on the wheat quality,” Sergey Feofilov, director general of Kiev-based market researcher UkrAgroConsult, said by phone. It “needs to analyse the consequences,” he said.
Egypt’s decision to reject ergot reversed a previous stance to allow international standards of as much as 0.05%, a level that the United Nation’s Food & Agriculture Organisation in Rome said didn’t present a threat.
Friday’s tender was for October 15-25 shipment. GASC usually gets more than 10 offers in its tenders.