CAIRO: A 200-hectare farm project in Uganda will provide Egypt with wheat supplies as per a new agreement between the two governments. According to the terms of the agreement, Egypt will provide technical and financial assistance, send experts and provide seeds to the farm while Uganda will supply infrastructure, irrigation equipment, local staff and labor. Reuters reported Thursday that the agreement is currently under revision and should be presented for ratification to the Egyptian parliament in the coming weeks, with implementation set to begin early in the new fiscal year beginning July 1. Declining wheat production around the world has led to rising bread prices internationally over the past two years, an issue that has impacted daily life in developing countries like Egypt where bread is an essential staple. The agreement is meant to help both Egypt and Uganda ensure food supply into the future, and provide Ugandan agricultural workers with the skills needed to expand cultivation in other suitable areas around the country. "The farm will be used for research and production to demonstrate and train extension workers and farmers in wheat growing. It will be a joint farm between Uganda and Egypt, said Attia El-Gayar of the Soil, Water and Environment Research Institute in Cairo. Uganda, which currently imports 90 percent of its wheat, is also benefiting from training programs offered by the Egyptian International Center for Agriculture in Cairo as a part of this agricultural partnership. Aside from the planned wheat farm in Uganda, Egypt also operates a corn farm in Zambia, a rice farm in Niger and a vegetable farm in Tanzania. The government has plans to begin operations on a total of 14 farms across Africa to ensure Egypt's food supply in the coming years. These countries are benefiting from our expertise and appreciate the help they are getting to utilize their land, said Ministry of Agriculture official Abdelaziz El-Deeb, Reuters reported. The pending agreement is part of Egypt's strategy to secure wheat supplies, particularly with it being one of the world's leading importers of wheat, consuming around 14 million tons of per year, half of which is imported. Egypt quarantined 11,000 tons of imported wheat from Ukraine and Australia on Wednesday over quality concerns. Authorities have not yet decided whether the shipments will be returned or destroyed. Australian wheat prices may face some short-term weakness as a result, analysts told Reuters Thursday. Australia s wheat export regulator, Wheat Exports Australia, could not confirm the quarantine, but analysts said the uncertainty could cast a shadow over prices. It is certainly going to weigh on Aussie prices in the next few days but if doesn t eventuate or isn t confirmed as a major problem I wouldn t expect prices to be tarnished for too long, Luke Mathews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, told Reuters. Egypt has also faced problems in recent weeks with imported wheat supplies from Russia that did not meet quality standards. Russia is Egypt's main supplier of wheat, with Egypt importing nearly a quarter of the country's total export output this season. In mid-May Egypt quarantined over 80,000 tons of imported Russian wheat due to concerns about unacceptable levels of seeds and dead insects in the shipment, sparking an ongoing dispute between Egyptian importers and Russian suppliers. The dispute has caused public outrage in Egypt and prompted government measures to increase regulations on wheat imports through private companies and impose penalties on violators. Russian president Dimitri Medvedev is set to visit Cairo at the end of the month to sign a framework agreement strengthening Russian-Egyptian trade relations. The possibility of increasing exports of Russian wheat to Egypt is expected to be a major topic of discussion during Medvedev's visit. Minister of Trade Rachid Mohamed Rachid stated Wednesday during a visit to Moscow that Egypt and Russia are working together to impose penalties on private companies importing substandard wheat to Egypt from Russia ahead of the Russian president's visit.
