Egypt seeks to make massive wheat purchases from Romania, taking advantage of the low price

Egypt aims to make substantial wheat acquisitions, benefiting from the reduced price. In 2023, Romania managed to export 780,000 tons of wheat to Egypt, ranking second among suppliers, after Russia, which exported around 2.9 million tons of wheat to the Egyptian state.

Our country sold significant quantities of wheat at the international tenders organized by GASC last year, surpassing even Ukraine.

Egypt is capitalizing on the recent decline in wheat prices to purchase nearly one-third of its annual grain needs in a single transaction, according to Bloomberg.

Egypt is one of the world’s largest wheat buyers, including from Romania, as this product is essential to support the bread subsidy program, on which more than two-thirds of the 105 million Egyptians depend, according to Agerpres.

The General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), the entity responsible for strategic wheat purchases on behalf of the Egyptian government, announced that it intends to purchase up to 3.8 million tons of wheat in the tender scheduled for next week. Usually, Egypt purchases less than one million tons of wheat and does not publicly disclose the quantity it intends to buy. Additionally, the tender includes a longer delivery period than usual.

“There is a decline in the global market and in the world commodity market. We have the chance to buy what we need from these commodities due to the current situation in the global market,” said Egypt’s Minister of Finance, Ahmed Kouchouk.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecasts that Egypt’s total wheat imports will reach 12 million tons in the 2024/2025 season. Despite unfavorable prospects in France and smaller harvests in Russia, wheat continues to trade near its lowest level in four years at the Chicago Board of Trade, where global benchmark prices are set, due to significant supplies from the U.S. On the other hand, wheat futures on the Paris exchange reached their highest level in a year in May, due to weather conditions, but prices have since declined.