CAIRO: Egypt, the world's largest wheat importer, has bought 120,000 tons of Ukrainian wheat for January 11-20 shipment, the main government wheat buyer said on Saturday. Nomani Nomani, vice chairman of the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), gave the following breakdown of the purchases: 60,000 tons of Ukrainian wheat from Toepfer at $247.92 a ton with freight costs of $16.70 a ton; and 60,000 tons of Ukrainian wheat from Veunus at $249.30 a ton with freight costs of $16.70 a ton. The purchase is GASC's first of Ukrainian wheat after it said on Oct. 22 it would include the origin in its international tenders with the same specifications required of Russian wheat. Egypt had removed Ukraine from the origins permitted in purchase tenders in late 2008 citing quality issues. Since the start of the 2011/12 fiscal year on July 1, GASC has purchased 2.46 million tons of Russian wheat, 180,000 tons of Romanian wheat, 120,000 tons of Kazakh wheat and 120,000 tons of Ukrainian wheat. In the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2011, GASC purchased some 5.58 million tons of French, US, Canadian, Australian and Argentine wheat. -Additional reporting by Michael Hogan in Hamburg.
