CAIRO: Egypt’s state grains buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), set a tender on Thursday to buy an unspecified amount of wheat from global suppliers for shipment Aug. 1-10. GASC Vice Chairman Ahmed Youssef said the authority was seeking to buy cargoes of soft and/or milling wheat from the United States, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Poland, Argentina, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Paraguay and Serbia.

Tenders should reach GASC by noon (1000 GMT) on Tuesday, April 6, and must remain valid for 24 hours. Wheat bids should be free on board, with a separate freight offer. GASC said it will pay for the grain with “at sight” letters of credit. Traders said the tender was “unprecedented,” both in terms of the advanced shipment date and the terms of the announcement, as GASC typically sets tenders the night before it hopes to receive offers.

One trader also highlighted that it was unusual for the buyer to tap the international market so soon before the local crop was due on April 15. In its last wheat tender on March 11, GASC bought 360,000 tonnes of Romanian wheat for shipment April 15-25. After the purchase, the supply ministry said Egypt had enough strategic wheat reserves for five months.