Egyptian authorities have reached their domestic wheat procurement target for this harvest season, Egypt's Ministry of Agriculture announced on Wednesday. The government has bought 4.07 million tonnes of wheat from Egyptian growers, meeting the target of 4-4.5 million tonnes announced in March by the vice chairman of Egypt's state grain buyer Mamdouh Abdel-Fattah. Egypt's government has long bought wheat from local farmers at a subsidised, higher-than-international price to encourage domestic production and provide for its nationwide subsidised bread programme that feeds tens of millions. Authorities offered a subsidised price of EGP 420 per ardeb for local wheat this season, reversing an earlier decision to buy from local farmers at the international price while granting them a direct cash subsidy of EGP 1,300 per feddan of wheat in order to prevent graft.