Egypt stocking up on Russian wheat – media

Egypt continued to purchase Russian wheat in December, African Initiative news outlet reported on Monday, citing data from Egypt’s General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC).

According to the report, GASC has purchased 480,000 tons of Russian wheat at an international tender this week. At the previous two tenders, held on December 5 and 7, the country purchased another 120,000 tons of the grain from Russia. The total amount of wheat contracted by Cairo in December amounted to 1.02 million tons, according to the Russian trade mission in Egypt.

Egypt is one of the world’s top wheat importers and its purchases are closely tracked as a global benchmark. In January, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that his country was looking forward to boosting grain supplies from Russia and called it one of the priorities of bilateral relations. In the first three months of the 2023-2024 crop year (July-September), Cairo bought 2.031 million tons of Russian grain, becoming the country’s largest grain buyer.

Russia reported its second largest grain harvest on record earlier this week. According to state statistics published on Monday, the country’s grain yield in 2023 will amount to 142.6 million metric tons in net weight. Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev said that the bumper harvest would enable “not only to provide the domestic market with a stock, but also to send significant volumes of grain to foreign partners.” The minister noted that Russian grain exports in 2023 had been hindered by financial, shipping, and insurance problems stemming from Ukraine-related Western sanctions. Despite this, he said that the country’s overall agricultural exports totaled more than $45 billion in 2023 – a record high. 

Meanwhile, Russia has also sent roughly 200,000 tons of free wheat to a number of African countries suffering from food crises. They include the Central African Republic, Somalia, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, and Eritrea.

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