The Egyptian government has backtracked on its zero-tolerance policy on ergot in wheat imports after 540,000 tons were kept at global ports from entering Egypt, the cabinet said on Wednesday.
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“Private importers will also want to buy wheat now that the ergot policy has reversed to 0.05 percent, so we should see much more loadings of wheat from Russian Federation particularly to fill this demand and prices should rise”, said Still.
The Egyptian minister of health Ahmed Emad also said on Wednesday the imported wheat will be purified and washed to cut the ratio to zero.
The government will hire an worldwide firm to inspect imported wheat, a change from the current system that involves sending out a government committee to the country of purchase, according to Essam Fayed, Egypt’s minster of agriculture. The decision came only two months after Fayed had decreed the 0.05 per cent standard in wheat imports.
Ergot can cause hallucinations when consumed in large amounts.
The conflicting regulations on wheat imports led to disturbances in the market as several shipments were rejected at the ports en route to Egypt.
“Egypt had no real choice but to cancel the zero ergot policy if they want to feed their people with large scale wheat imports”. The price is about $10 a ton higher than Russian wheat for loading at the Novorossiysk port yesterday, data from UkrAgroConsult showed.
“There was an amendment made so that final inspection of the wheat would be at the load port and that is much better than what it was before”, one Cairo-based trader said.
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Egypt imports 11 million tonnes of wheat a year, with the government importing five million tonnes a year and the remainder by the private sector.
