CAIRO — Egypt has purchased 180,000 tons of Russian and Romanian wheat with an average price of $200 per ton, Minister of Supply and Internal Trade Khaled Hanafy announced Saturday. Hanafy added that the strategic wheat stock is sufficient until early January of 2016. Around 60,000 tons were imported from Russia, while the remaining 120,000 tons will come from Romania. The imported wheat will be delivered over 11 days starting from 11 July. The wheat was bought through an international tender and will be used for producing subsidized bread, the ministry highlighted. Earlier this month, Tarek Hassanein, head of the Grain Industry Chamber at the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI), said the decline in imported wheat this year was due to the abundant supply of wheat from local farmers. He added that the wheat production increased by 1 million tons this year compared to last year. The ministry received 5m tons of wheat from farmers in various governorates and reduced the amount of imported wheat from abroad to 4.6m tons, compared to 6.4m tons last year. Hanafy visited Alexandria on Saturday to launch a port jetty and a grains' silo that were modernized in the Alexandria port. The development and modernization of the silos cost approximately EGP 60m. He added that EGP20m were spent on developing the silos' equipment and installing two lines to receive wheat and grain imported to the port. — Agencies
