Cairo: The Egyptian Minister of Supply Ali Moselhi said, on Sunday, that Egypt has signed a contract to buy 180,000 tons of wheat from India, which is less than what was previously agreed upon.
This came during a press conference to announce the Ministry of Supply’s preparations for Eid Al Adha 2022 and the provision of meat and poultry products at outlets of consumer complexes and branches of affiliated companies.
“Based on what the supplier said, the condition was that the wheat has to be at the ports, then it would be available,” he told a news conference on Sunday, according to Reuters.
Egypt is studying ways to extract more flour from grain and use potatoes to make bread while trying to cut off imports.
Egypt is desperately struggling to find alternate sources of wheat after the Russian invasion of Ukraine has put the supply to the country in jeopardy. Last year the country imported about 85 percent of the wheat it needed from Russia and Ukraine.
The war in Ukraine increased the costs of Egypt’s wheat imports.
Moselhi had said in May that Egypt, which is seeking to diversify its sources of imports, had agreed to buy 500,000 tons of wheat from India.
India banned wheat exports in the same month but allowed it to be supplied to countries such as Egypt for reasons of food security needs.
India is the eighth largest wheat exporter in the world, accounting for 4.1 percent of total global wheat exports in 2020-2021.
Although it is the second-largest wheat producer in the world, India consumes most of the wheat it produces.
