Egyptian officials on Sunday asked their Russian counterparts to form a joint committee to discuss the implementation of signed contracts for the purchase of Russian wheat by Egypt following a Russian government decision last week to ban all wheat exports.
The request comes in the wake of a Russian decision to cancel Egypt's purchase of some 360,000 tons of wheat that had already been signed for.
The proposed committee, according to informed sources, would be tasked with agreeing on shipment deadlines suitable to both sides in light of the strong economic relations between Egypt and Russia.
In a statement issued after meeting with Russia's commercial attache in Cairo,Trade and Industry Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid said that Egypt had received 17 offers for a total of one million tons of wheat from France, the US and Canada.
The minister has reportedly reviewed Egypt’s strategic wheat reserves and formed a committee mandated with following fluctuations in the global wheat market and determining the conditions for purchase.
He also requested that the Finance Ministry allocate funds, ranging between LE2.5 billion and LE4 billion, for future wheat imports.
In a related development, official statistics agency CAPMAS has warned of an imminent rise in domestic inflation rates due to increasing global wheat prices following Russia's decision to proscribe wheat exports.
“The Finance Ministry can be expected to rack up more losses if it continues to sell subsidized bread at five piastres a loaf,” said CAPMAS Director Abu Bakr al-Guindi.
Minister of Agriculture Amin Abaza, for his part, urged the ministry’s research center to finalize studies on novel kinds of wheat that can resist high temperatures and can therefore be grown domestically.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
