Egypt’s grain purchases have “surged” this year, “partly driven by government efforts to fill a gap left by a shrinking private sector hit by a crackdown on fraud and smuggling,” Reuters reports. Government wheat purchases increased 80% y-o-y for the first seven months and GASC says it aims to buy 7 mn tonnes of wheat in FY2017-18, up from 6 mn tonnes the last fiscal year. “The [7 mn] tonnes is the normal now as they have to fill the old fake numbers,” said Hesham Soliman, president of Medstar for Trading. Reuters notes that “wheat buying has moved away from the private sector in the aftermath of reforms brought in this year barring private dealers smuggling foreign wheat into the local harvest to collect on subsidies.”

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