Will Egypt be back for more soft white wheat?
Farm and Ranch September 17, 2010 This week’s purchase by Egypt of 55-thousand metric tons of Pacific Northwest soft white wheat was the first such purchase by the mid-eastern nation in quite some time. Tom Mick, CEO of the Washington Grain Commission, says the Egyptian buy was a direct result of Russia’s drought and grain export ban. Mick: “Russia can’t meet its deliveries. They reneged on about 600-thousand tons of wheat that the Egyptians said they had already purchased. So they are scrambling around the world trying to cover that.” Mick says the wheat the Egyptians purchased is for delivery prior to the several month closure of the Columbia-Snake river system in December. Mick: “We don’t know what will happen during the river closure, whether they will continue to buy soft white. They are not factored in at this point. However, the Australian crop is coming on and we just learned that the new estimate is for around 25 million metric tons of wheat. That is almost a record for them so they are going to be very aggressive in the market too. And they start harvest the first of November so their wheat will be available during the river closure. So it is going to be an interesting time between now and March 10th when they open the river back up.” Egypt purchased much more wheat from France and Canada than from the U.S. in that recent tender but a European trader says U.S. wheat was specifically requested for reasons of quality. Several years back Egypt was a major export market for PNW soft white wheat but the region lost the market as more and more Russian and Black Sea wheat became available at cheaper prices. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net. ? ? ? ?
