The Egyptian state's main wheat buying agency, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), on Friday set its fourth international wheat tender in three weeks, seeking an unspecified volume for Oct. 11-20 shipment. The tender from world's top wheat importing nation comes amid concerns about weather-shortened crops in key exporting countries, particularly drought-hit Russia, Egypt's top supplier. In its previous three tenders, the agency's first since April, GASC has purchased five cargoes, or 300,000 tonnes, of Russian wheat and one 60,000-tonne cargo each of Ukrainian and Romanian wheat. Russia's government on Friday said it would not limit grain exports even if its exportable surplus is exhausted, which industry experts believe could happen as soon as October. Numerous other wheat-import-dependant nations have issued tenders in recent weeks as worries about reduced global supplies heightened, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Tunisia and Algeria. The amount of international grain tenders has also accelerated following the end of Ramadan. Nomani Nomani, vice chairman of Egypt's GASC, one of the world's biggest state importers of wheat, is seeking to buy: 55,000- to 60,000-tonne cargoes of the following: * U.S. North Pacific soft white wheat * Ukrainian milling wheat 60,000-tonne cargoes of the following: * U.S. soft red winter wheat * Canadian soft wheat * French milling wheat * Australian standard white wheat * German milling wheat * Argentine bread wheat * Polish milling wheat * Russian milling wheat * Kazakh milling wheat * Romanian milling wheat Tenders should reach GASC by noon local time (1000 GMT) on Saturday and the results should come out around 4:30 p.m. (1430 GMT) on the same day. Wheat bids should be free-on-board, with a separate freight offer. In a bid to encourage more offers from landlocked Kazakhstan, Nomani said that if he purchases wheat of Kazakh or Russian origin at the seller's option or Kazakh or Ukrainian origin at the seller's option, specifications for Kazakh wheat would apply to the whole cargo. In its last international wheat purchase on Aug. 25, GASC bought 180,000 tonnes of Russian and Romanian wheat for Oct. 1-10 shipment. Reuters
