Egypt says no disruption of wheat purchases

Wheat purchases by Egypt, the world's largest importer of the grain, are proceeding normally, the main government wheat buyer said on Monday after a popular uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak. The most populous Arab country entered global markets twice last week, suggesting that its procurement process has not been disrupted by political turmoil.
"Our purchases are proceeding normally and there are no disruptions," Nomani, vice chairman of the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), told Reuters. "Ports are operating normally, and there are no problems," he added. GASC's latest tender result on Friday came just hours before Egypt's Vice President Omar Suleiman said Mubarak was resigning and that a military council would run the country's affairs.
Traders said the north African country is buying wheat regularly, despite the political upheaval and strikes for higher pay, due to the sensitivity of the commodity that could lead to further unrest. "Wheat is a strategic commodity in Egypt. You could sense disruptions across various sectors in Egypt, but when it comes to wheat, everything is carefully measured and well handled," a Cairo-based trader said.
Egypt's newly appointed Finance Minister Samir Radwan said on February 5 his ministry had allocated an extra 2.8 billion Egyptian pounds ($476 million) in two days to finance wheat purchases. Numerous governments in grain-import-dependant North Africa and the Middle East have scrambled in recent weeks to secure food imports in hopes of calming growing unrest over rising prices of food staples such as rice and flour.
Nomani said on January 31 that Egypt had wheat stocks to last six months, and even longer if the upcoming local harvest was taken into account, adding that Egypt was in a safe position regarding commodities. He said wheat shipments had been arriving with no delays at ports. A Suez Canal official said on Sunday the waterway was operating normally and had not been affected by Mubarak's resignation. "I had three ships at the ports during the curfew hours and the height of the political turmoil, and I didn't experience any problems," said another Cairo-based trader.
But shipping sources had earlier said cargo operations at the Mediterranean ports of Alexandria, Damietta and Port Said, which especially handle bulk and container shipments including grains, had yet to return to full strength. Since the start of the 2010/11 fiscal year on July 1, GASC has purchased about 4.805 million tonnes of French, US, Canadian, Australian and Argentine wheat. In the fiscal year that ended on June 30, GASC purchased some 5.53 million tonnes of US, French, Russian, German, Kazakh and Canadian wheat at international tenders.