AFP photo
The General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) is offering an international tender to purchase 55,000 to 60,000 tonnes of wheat from global suppliers for shipment in the period from 1 to 10 September.
GASC announced on its website Monday that the offers should be submitted by the suppliers at the headquarters of the authority Tuesday before noon Cairo Local Time, to be decided on the same day.
The authority said that the offers should be submitted on a Free On Board (FOB) basis, with a freight offer separate from the original offer.
GASC Vice President Mamdouh Abd El-Fattahsaid that he is seeking to buy shipments of US soft white winter wheat, US soft red winter wheat, or Canadian soft wheat.
Abd El-Fattah added that GASC seeks to buy Argentinean wheat for bread, Australian soft wheat, and French, German, Russian, Ukrainian, Roman, Kazakh and Polish milling wheat.
Abd El-Fattahnoted that the wheat stock in silos is up to 4.365m tonnes, which is enough to last until mid-December.
He pointed out that the contracted amount of wheat is sufficient for the production of subsidised bread for citizens until 10 January next year.
In February, GASC signed a contract to purchase 290,000 tonnes of American wheat with an average cost of $273.11 per tonne. The wheat, which was purchased though an international tender, will be used to produce subsidised bread. The wheat was supplied between 15 and 25 April.
GASC is the main buyer of wheat in Egypt and one of the largest government importers of wheat in the world.
Egypt is the largest importer of wheat in the world, as domestic production is not sufficient, having reached 3.7m tonnes in 2014. The production increased this year, as the Ministry of Supply received 5m tonnes of wheat from farmers in various governorates.
