Inspection committees have found 4% of the 5 mn tonnes of local wheat allegedly purchased by the state is missing from silos, Supply Minister Khaled Hanafy told Reuters on Tuesday. Hanafy, however, asserts that he is not and should not be held politically responsible for any alleged wrongdoing. “What is the mistake that the government made that it should not make again?" he asked. The House of Representatives’ fact-finding committee probing wheat collection has said it would recommend sacking Hanafy, while the minister blamed the House for the debacle on the airwaves earlier this week.

Hanafy also confirmed that Blumberg Grain’s proposal for phase two of a grain storage and logistics project was rejected because “financially [it] was not suitable.” To quell fears, Hanafy said we have wheat sufficient to last until mid-January, enough sugar for the end of the year and enough vegetable oil to last through to the end of September. An EGP 8 bn revolving credit facility was made available through local banks to GASC “to purchase goods and sell them as subsidized commodities to make balance in the market,” he added.