CAIRO: The Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday it had not issued a new regulation restricting wheat imports, after a newspaper reported that only wheat shipped directly from its country of origin would be accepted. No decision has been issued by the agriculture ministry until today, an official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. State-owned Al-Akhbar newspaper had earlier said the ministry banned the entry of wheat not shipped directly from the country of origin and asked quarantine authorities to carefully examine shipment documents. Egypt has been locked in a grain squabble for two weeks after a decision by the state prosecutor to seize all Russian wheat in the country on May 13. The decision followed a complaint by a member of parliament that a Russian wheat shipment containing a high level of impurities was imported. Egypt, one of the world s largest wheat importers, has bought almost a quarter of the wheat exported by Russia in the current marketing year. Industry sources have said it is unlikely that Egypt will seize Russian wheat already distributed in the country and that measures would be confined to ports. Since then, over 100,000 tons of Russian wheat have been reportedly quarantined at Damietta, Port Said and Safaga ports for testing. The Russian Grain Union has called the seizures provocative and an attempt to lower prices offered by suppliers. The Arab world s most populous country has bought over 5 million tons of overseas wheat through the state-owned grain buyer GASC in the current fiscal year. Egypt s state prosecutor is still investigating the issue.
