Quality cloud over fresh Ukraine-Egypt wheat trade

Regaining access to Egyptian wheat tenders may not, for now, improve Ukraine's grain export fortunes thanks to poor quality which have left little milling wheat to spare.

The Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation on Monday raised hopes that Egypt, the world's biggest wheat importer, would restore Ukraine to its list of approved suppliers, after a three-year ban introduced after quality disputes.

Nomani Nomani, vice-chairman of Egypt's state grain importer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities, said the authority "is ready to return Ukraine in the list of its official suppliers if… a state-run body guarantees quality of Ukrainian grain", the UAC said.

The statement followed a meeting between Gasc and Ukrainian industry representatives.

Feed vs milling

However, while a thawing of relations would be "good news" for Ukraine, allowing it to compete for wheat tenders totalling some 5m-6m tonnes a year, the country's ability to make an immediate impact looked limited, Pierre Begoc, executive director at Agritel's Kiev office, said.

With the level of this year's wheat crop fit for food as low as 30%, thanks to harvest rains, the country may only have about 6m tonnes of milling wheat available.

"That's roughly the same as domestic consumption," Mr Begoc told Agrimoney.com.

"The export availability of milling quality wheat looks rather narrow."

In a normal year, some 40% of Ukrainian wheat was of milling quality, reaching 45% in the best years.

Separately, Gasc was on Monday said by traders to be raising its requirements for protein content in wheat, reversing changes made last year when a series of poor harvests handed market power to sellers.