CAIRO, September 22 Reports that Egypt has refused to purchase Russian wheat are not true, First Assistant to the country's Minister of Supply Ibrahim Ashmawy told RT TV channel Arabic.
Earlier, Bloomberg reported that Egypt decided to purchase almost half a million tons of wheat from France and Bulgaria due to the fact that Moscow allegedly blocked supplies of Russian wheat due to price discrepancies.
““The message is completely untrue,” Ashmawy said, emphasizing that trade relations between Egypt and Russia are “going smoothly.”
Earlier, the Union of Grain Exporters published data according to which Egypt, based on the results of the first two months of the 2023-2024 agricultural year, became a key importer of Russian wheat, supplies there increased by 11.8% compared to the same period of the previous season and amounted to 1.28 million tons.
In early September, media reported that Egypt had purchased about half a million tons of Russian wheat privately, moving away from the usual tender process. In mid-July, Nomani Nasr Nomani, adviser to Egypt's Minister of Supply on Commodity Supply, confirmed that Egypt was seeking to increase wheat supplies by diversifying its import sources to complement local production. Earlier, Ashmawy explained earlier that Egypt is among the largest importers of wheat and the share of Russian wheat in its imports is estimated at 80%.