The Egyptian GASC purchased 600,000 tons of Russian wheat at a tender

The Egyptian GASC purchased 600,000 tons of Russian wheat for delivery on May 10-20 and 21-31 at a tender on April 6 at a price of $293-294/t C&F. The price of Russian wheat on an FOB basis was $275/t, which was $3/t higher than the price of Ukrainian wheat, but the high cost of freight from Black Sea ports made Ukrainian products uncompetitive. At the same time, Romania, Bulgaria and France were also unable to compete with the significant amount of supply from the Russian Federation.

The cost of freight for Russian wheat is only $18-19/ton, which is twice as low as last year and much lower than what Ukrainian sellers pay.

The cheapest bid at the tender was the offer of 60,000 tons of Ukrainian wheat from the Viterra company with delivery on May 10-20 and a price of $272/t FOB, while at the previous auction on March 16, GASC increased Ukrainian wheat (which also turned out to be the cheapest) by $7.5 /t is more expensive - $279.5/t. The cheapest offer of Russian wheat had a price of $275/t (-26.5 $/t compared to the trading on March 16), Romanian – $285/t (-18.5 $/t), French – $288.5/t ($-24.42/t), Bulgarian (only one batch was offered) – $284.84/t. As a result, GASC purchased 500,000 tons of wheat from the Grainflower company and 100,000 tons from the Aston company.

According to Egypt's Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade, the country's wheat reserves will meet domestic demand for the next 2.3 months, pasta products for 7 months, vegetable oils for another 4.3 months, and sugar and rice for 4 months. Stocks are usually maintained at the level of at least 4 months of consumption, so the current strategic stocks of wheat on the eve of purchases of the own harvest, which begin to be harvested in April, are assessed as satisfactory.