Market News & Headlines >> U.S. Wheat Offered, but Egypt Buys Romanian, Russian

U.S. wheat made a rare appearance in the Egyptian market on Tuesday as Cargill offered a cargo to Egypt’s main official buyer, the General Authority on Supply Commodities (GASC), in its latest import tender, however, the agency bought Russian and Romanian wheat. 

The 55,000-metric-ton cargo of U.S. soft red winter or hard red winter wheat was offered at $185.00 per metric ton ($5.03 1/2 per bushel) on a Free-on-Board (FOB) basis, which means the price did not include freight costs. 

GASC received 11 offers from seven different exporters in its tender for an unspecified amount of wheat for Dec. 1-10 shipment. The other 10 offers were all for Russian or Romanian wheat, with the cheapest offer being $182.74 per metric ton ($4.97 1/2 per bushel) for a 60,000-metric-ton cargo of Russian wheat.  

GASC bought a total of 420,000 metric tons of milling wheat at an average price of $184.30 per ton ($4.99 per bushel) FOB, including 240,000 tons of Romanian wheat and 180,000 tons of Russian wheat. 

Although U.S. wheat is now competitive on an FOB basis in the Egyptian market, Black Sea wheat still enjoys a significant advantage on freight costs, which figures to limit any sales of U.S. wheat into that market. Egypt has not bought any U.S. wheat so far in 2016-17 and in 2015-16 it imported only 41,800 metric tons, according to USDA export data.