Russian wheat dominates Egypt GASC tender, lowest offer at $186.05/T

The lowest offer at Egypt’s GASC wheat tender on Tuesday was $186.05 a tonne free-on-board (FOB) for 60,000 tonnes of Russian wheat, traders said, with cheap Russian offers dominating due to that country’s bumper crop.
Egypt, the world’s largest wheat buyer, is seeking cargoes for shipment from Oct. 1-10. Results are due on Tuesday.

Traders said the tender highlighted how Russia’s potentially record-setting crop this season was pushing its export prices down, with eight of the nine lowest offers after accounting for shipping costs coming from the origin.

“The price spread is now huge in the GASC offers, with Russia dominating,” said one European based trader.

The tender also comes as Egypt’s public prosecutor is expected to make a decision on whether to reject and re-export a cargo of Romanian wheat purchased by GASC for containing poppy seeds.

It would be the first GASC cargo turned away since a French shipment was rejected in late 2015 for containing trace levels of the common grain fungus ergot, kicking off a nearly year-long row over import requirements.