European producers might struggle to provide ergot-free wheat
European producers may further struggle to provide Egypt with ergot-free wheat due to wet weather, Whitney McFerron writes for Bloomberg. “Rains in France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia in recent weeks have created ideal conditions for crop disease just before most harvesting is set to start. Much of France, one of the largest suppliers of wheat in Egyptian tenders, got more than double the normal rain in the past month, World Ag Weather said. That’s boosting the risk of fungi including fusarium and ergot.” Unlike of a number of analysts, Swithun Still, a director of Morges, Switzerland-based trader Solaris Commodities SA, says Egypt should be able to source wheat as long as it allows an international standard level of 0.05% ergot. Still, “it’s too early to tell how much French grain might be affected by various diseases,” said Wiebke Baars, a consultant at Paris-based farm adviser Agritel.
Meanwhile, Egypt has strategic reserves of wheat sufficient to last until January 2017, Supply Minister Khaled Hanafy said. The government had announced in mid-June that it collected around 5 mn tonnes of wheat from domestic farmers this season, Al Mal reported.