Egypt wheat reserves to last six months – 15.06.2009

Egypt has enough strategic wheat reserves to last six months and seizures of imported wheat have not affected consumption, state-owned newspaper al-Akhbar quoted the social solidarity minister as saying on Friday. Egypt, one of the world's biggest wheat importers, has reserves of more than 3.5 million tonnes of fit-for-use wheat, Ali Musailhi said.

 

He added that this was in addition to more than 3 million tonnes of procured local wheat, according to the paper. Egypt's prosecutor is probing documents related to a Russian wheat cargo imported by private firm Egyptian Traders Co to determine their authenticity.

 

Wheat shipments from Russia have been under intense scrutiny in the most populous Arab country since mid-May when the prosecutor ordered an initial probe after the detection of dead bugs and impurities in some wheat imported by Egyptian Traders. Egypt has since seized over 100,000 tonnes of Russian wheat. The Russian Grain Union has called Egypt's seizures provocative and an attempt to lower prices.