More wheat money from the ITFC: The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (IFTC) this week agreed to extend the country USD 700 mn to fund grain imports, Asharq Business quotes Supply Minister Ali El Moselhy as saying.

Not entirely new money: The funding is part of the USD 1.5 bn financing agreementthe government agreed with the ITFC back in January to fund energy and basic commodities imports. The lender has long helped finance our essential imports, with the latest agreement coming under the ITFC’s 2018 credit agreement with Egypt, which it last year extended to a possible USD 6 bn from USD 3 bn and renewed for another five years.

Gov’t says its not struggling to pay for wheat imports: The government has not asked to reschedule payments to any wheat suppliers nor has it missed any payments, Assistant Supply Minister Ibrahim Ashmawy said during an interview with Lamees Hadidi on Kelma Akhira last night (watch, runtime: 12:33).

The Russian grain we booked last week might end up coming from elsewhere:Russian wheat exporter Agric SA is “committed” to fulfilling its offer to ship 55k tons of wheat but may look into sourcing the grain from somewhere other than Russia, El Moselhy reportedly said. Bloomberg on Thursday reported that Agric waslooking to withdraw its successful bid in last week’s wheat tender after Moscow objected to the USD 229 / ton price, Bloomberg reports, citing anonymous sources. The supplier had offered to ship 55k tons of wheat for USD 229 per ton but reversed course after failing to get approval from Russia’s agriculture ministry, which wants to enforce a minimum USD 240 per-ton price, the people said. In response, GASC has reportedly threatened to keep hold of the USD 400k guarantee if Agric doesn’t deliver the grain.

Progress on our four new grain warehouses: Moselhy was speaking at a ceremony to mark the start of work on the first of four strategic warehousesfor grain and other basic commodity storage. The Suez warehouse will cost some EGP 1.5 bn to build — up from an initial EGP 1 bn estimate — and will be up and running in the next 18-24 months, Moselhy said. The government has signed EGP 4 bn worth of contracts with our friends at Hassan Allam Utilities (HAU), Orascom Construction, and Samcrete to set up the four warehouses, with the remaining three to be located in Sharqia, Luxor and Fayoum.

Local wheat buys on track: The government has so far procured some 3.4 mn tons of wheat from local farmers this harvest season, according to a Supply Ministry statement yesterday. The statement came after Reuters reported that Egypt could miss its target to procure 4 mn tons of local wheat this season, citing an anonymous government source as saying that the government had bought less than 3.2 mn tons so far this year.

Strategic reserves of wheat currently stand at 5.9 months, Moselhy reportedly said yesterday – up from 2.6 months’ worth at the end of April. The local wheat harvest runs from the beginning of April to August.

Tags: