Wheat rally sees GASC paying 3% more for April cargoes

Egypt’s state grain buyer returned to the market Tuesday, buying 175,000 mt of Russian origin wheat at an average price of $230.66/mt CFR for delivery April 5-15, market sources said.

Three cargoes were bought out of the eight originally offered – including 55,000 mt at $229.75/mt and 60,000 mt at $231.10/mt from GTCS, as well as 60,000 mt from Garant Logistic at $213.05/mt.

The delivered price was 3.2% higher than at its previous tender February 21, having come in the wake of a recent rally in the price of wheat.

Since its previous tender on February 21, wheat prices have jumped 12.4% on the Kansas City HRW contract, a US benchmark broadly in line with the specifications GASC is seeking.

At the same time, 12.5% protein wheat prices from Russia – by far Egypt’s biggest supplier – have increased 2.2% to $208.25/mt FOB Novorossiysk according to Agricensus data.

At its previous tender GASC bought 120,000 mt of Russian wheat at $223.50/mt CFR Egypt for delivery March 22-April 1.

For the past decade Egypt has been the world’s biggest wheat importer, although the USDA’s most recent global supply and demand report suggested Indonesia would briefly overtake it in the 2017/18 marketing year on the back of higher feed wheat demand.

Egypt regularly buys more than 11 million mt of wheat a year on the global market.