Egypt has quarantined 52,501 tonnes of Russian wheat at the Red Sea port of Safaga for quality control reasons, but is not holding any other wheat, an agriculture ministry official said on Thursday.

Egypt's state news agency had said on Wednesday that the state prosecutor had ordered the seizure of all Russian wheat for checks over health concerns after a complaint that spoiled wheat had entered Safaga port without proper approvals.

"We found dead bugs, impurities and seeds above the allowed limit in the shipment. That is why we quarantined it," Ali Soliman, head of the central administration of the agricultural quarantine told Reuters.

"Issues like these can sometimes be treated and so we held the wheat in order to treat it if possible. But we did not release one kilogram of it into the market," he said.

Soliman said Egyptian authorities will continue to inspect all wheat shipments coming into the country, and would not hesitate to quarantine them if necessary. No other wheat was being held, he said.

Egypt is one of the world's top wheat importers, and the shipment in question was imported by Egyptian Traders, which regularly imports wheat for Egypt's main state wheat buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC).

Soliman said that 8,600 tonnes from the wheat shipment in question had been sent to nearby silos for treatment because the port lacked the necessary facilities, but that it remained in quarantine there.

Egypt has bought over 5 million tonnes of overseas wheat through GASC in the current fiscal year, much of it from Russia. Egypt is the biggest consumer of Russian wheat.

Much of the wheat Egypt buys goes into its subsidised bread regime, a main component of its economic policy that allows millions to survive on low salaries.


Reuters