NEW GUIDELINES FOR 2017 WHEAT HARVEST: Prime Minister Sherif Ismail ordered an immediate review of the procedures for next year’s wheat harvest at a meeting with the ministers of supply, agriculture, and trade and industry, Al Ahram reports. The move is a bid to avoid a recurrence of this year’s wheat harvest scandal, which toppled former Supply Minister Khalid Hanafy. Changes will include prioritizing government-owned shounas and silos over the private sector (allegedly the primary perpetrators of the fraud, according to allegations by the House of Representatives and the Prosecutor General). There’s speculation that the 2017 harvest season will be extended, and Ismail has ordered a status report on the country’s wheat storage facilities.

In other commodities news, Geneva-based SGS will reportedly conduct inspections of wheat shipments bound for Egypt, Agriculture Minister Essam Fayed told Al Mal. While we had noted yesterday that the government was hiring six firms (one of which was SGS) to handle inspections, based on a report from Al Borsa relying on unnamed sources, it would appear that only SGS will handle operations. The Swiss firm will replace Egypt’s old system of sending abroad delegations of six officials (including two from the quarantine department) to carry out inspections. The US Department of Agriculture deemed this an “unnecessary and burdensome” practice, Bloomberg reported. The report added these and similar regulations will contribute more than USD 860 mn in direct costs and lost export earnings this year.

Traders speaking to Reuters have their own problems to worry about, however, saying they actually preferred dealing with government inspectors at the port of origin, as at least their shipments could be guaranteed. “The [government] delegations work better as there are no surprises at discharge … but now we have to wait for arrival surprises,” said one Cairo-based trader to the newswire. “This moves my risk to the port of discharge, and this is a big problem for any trader,” a supplier said.

The government also agreed to hire a company to inspect soybean imports to ensure they meet Egyptian standards, according to Al Shorouk. The Agriculture Ministry claims that just 79% of soybean shipments meet import standards.