October 29, 2009

Egyptian authorities took a second sample from a US wheat shipment Wednesday (October 28) after a first sample showed more than the legal limit of seeds, a government source said.

"The shipment had 996 seeds per kilogramme," said the official, who declined to give his name. "The maximum number of seeds permitted per kilogramme is 25 seeds."

The official said the shipment arrived in Egypt in mid-October. The second sample was taken Wednesday and the results are likely to be out Thursday.

Another government official told Dow Jones Newswires the shipment belonged to the international grain company Cargill Inc., which wasn't available to comment.

In mid-October, Egypt's Central Administration for Plant Quarantine released a detained cargo of 63,000 tonnes of French wheat. The shipment, which arrived at Egypt's Safaga Port Sept.17, was seized for containing 44 poisonous and impure seeds a kilogramme. After treatment, the shipment complied with Egyptian standards.

Egypt, one of the world's largest wheat importers, has been at the centre of controversy since May, when authorities quarantined 52,501 tonnes of Russian wheat imported by Egyptian Traders Co., one of the country's largest importers, because it found weed seeds and dead insects in the grain.