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  • Feb 23rd, 2005
  • Comments Off on UK grain shippers eye Egyptian wheat market
UK wheat shippers are looking to win business in Egypt after Cairo last week added them to its list of possible suppliers, Britain's Home Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA) said on Tuesday. On Saturday Egypt's main government-run wheat importer, GASC, filled a 60,000-tonne wheat tender with French grain, but the UK grain marketing body believed it had laid the groundwork for future deals.

"It was probably too much to hope for that we'd get UK wheat on the tender list and get a cargo in one go, but maybe by the time we get to the next tender, or certainly to the next harvest, we've got everything in place," HGCA crop marketing director Alastair Dickie said.

"We've been in direct discussions with Egypt for up to two years about the possibility that Egypt might take UK milling wheat."

Egypt had been anxious about moisture content.

"Dry wheat countries resent paying for water," Dickie said, adding that Cairop had finally been won over to UK wheat after regular tender player Canada was allowed a moisture content of up 14.5 percent.

"That was a big breakthrough because there's a lot of anxiety in the UK about shipping wheat to foreign countries at low moisture levels as it costs us a lot of money to dry it. On this basis, it's cheaper to take an allowance (or cheaper price) than it is to meet those costs."

The HGCA, which helps market UK cereals at home and abroad, said Britain might soon be competing head on with rival grower France in Egypt.

Copyright Reuters, 2005


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