The following article is from Bloomberg.
Egypt, the world’s biggest wheat importer, will require inbound cargoes of the grain to be inspected by officials of its agriculture ministry before dispatch from ports of shipment.
The inspections, which were voluntary in the past, will now be enforced in tenders issued by the state-run wheat buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities, Vice Chairman Nomani Nomani said today by phone.
“The dispatching of a committee from the agriculture ministry’s health quarantine department at the port means that the cargoes will be cleared for entrance before they arrive in Egypt,” Nomani said. “It was done before on a voluntary basis, and it proved successful.”
Egyptian authorities have rejected wheat cargoes or seized shipments that were deemed inedible. Millers have complained that some imported grain was of poor quality.
The authority buys between 5 million and 6 million metric tons of wheat a year on behalf of the government via international tenders because local production is insufficient to meet demand in the Arab world’s most populous nation, which has about 80 million people. The wheat is used in a subsidized bread program.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ola Galal in Cairo at ogalal@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net.
Source: Bloomberg
Posted by Haylie Shipp
