Wheat offers remain scarce at Egypt GASC wheat import tender

Egypt, the world's largest wheat importer, received only four offers at an international tender to buy the grain on Saturday as suppliers remained reluctant to sell to the state grain buyer GASC following concern about limits on imports of wheat containing the ergot fungus. Participation in Saturday's tender by international grain trading houses was even lower than one on Friday when five offers were made and much lower compared to tenders in the past few months.

The lowest offer presented was for French wheat at $186.50 a tonne free-on-board (FOB) and $194 a tonne cost and freight (C&F) by Soufflet, traders said. The remaining three offers were for Russian wheat, two cargoes by Union Co and one by Aston. Still, traders said there was a technical issue with the French freight price of $7.50 a tonne and it could be rejected making Russian wheat the cheapest on a cost and freight basis.

Suppliers have been presenting offers to GASC with a risk premium added to the price for the past two tenders on the back of uncertainity about the allowed limits of ergot, a grain fungus found in wheat worldwide. GASC only managed to buy one cargo of 60,000 tonnes of Romanian wheat in a tender on Friday and soon after announced another wheat import tender for the same shipment period of March 10-20, reflecting Egypt's pressing need to secure more of the grain.