Egypt’s GASC buys first Polish wheat cargo since 2015

Egypt’s state grain importer booked its first Polish-origin wheat cargo since October 2015 at a tender that closed Wednesday as it secured four parcels of milling wheat for November delivery.

General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) paid an average of $233.80/mt FOB and $249.35/mt CFR for 235,000 mt for delivery November 10-20.

Three of the four cargoes are from Russia and a fourth from Poland, with sellers including Casillo, Louis Dreyfus, Posco Daewoo, and Solaris.

Payment for both windows is to be via a 180-day letter of credit.

At its previous tender, which concluded September 3, GASC bought a 55,000 mt cargo of Russian wheat at $225/mt FOB and $240.50/mt CFR for the November 5-15 window.

Wednesday’s tender marks the first time GASC bought Polish wheat in almost half a decade, with the origin having lost out to the Black Sea and French origins in recent years due to a freight disadvantage and competitive origin pricing from other suppliers.

Egypt, the world’s biggest wheat importer, will import around 13 million mt in the 2020/21 marketing year, according to USDA data, with GASC expected to account for around half that volume.

Details of previous GASC buying can be found on the Tender Dashboard.