November 5, 2009
Egyptians to inspect wheat imports for Egypt at foreign ports
Egyptian officials will inspect all wheat for import into Egypt at foreign ports, a trade ministry official said Wednesday (November 4).
The new policy comes after a series of incidents in which Egypt detained imported wheat for containing impurities.
This will be applied this month starting from the first coming tender, Hesham Ragab, the advisor of the Ministry of Trade and Industry said.
Upon entry into Egypt the wheat will be inspected by officials from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture and the General Organization for Imports and Exports Control, or GOIEC.
Last week, a shipment of US wheat held for extra testing at an Egyptian port resumed discharging.
The shipment, being delivered by Cargill Inc to Egypt's state wheat-buyer the General Authority for Supply Commodities, or GASC, wasn't allowed to complete discharging after an initial sample showed it contained more than the legal limit of seeds.
In mid-October, another shipment containing 63,000 tonnes of French wheat was released after treatment. It was seized for containing 44 poisonous and impure seeds a kilogramme.
The delayed discharge of the wheat follows months of increased scrutiny of wheat imports into Egypt, after authorities quarantined 52,501 tonnes of Russian wheat in May, because it found weed seeds and dead insects in the grain.
