Egypt buys more local wheat, has 6 months' stock

Egypt's state wheat buyer said on Sunday it had surpassed its local procurement target by 700,000 tonnes and had a strategic supply of local and imported wheat to last until January. "Our target was 3 million tonnes and we did much better than that so we are currently in a comfortable position and in no rush to enter the international market," Nomani Nomani, vice chairman of the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) told Reuters. Egypt procured only 2.6 million tonnes of local wheat last year compared with the 3.7 million tonnes it procured this year. Nomani said he was watching pricing movements on international grain markets carefully to pick a suitable time to resume imports, but said it was not likely GASC would seek wheat for August shipment.