Another big wheat buy: Egypt purchased 444k tons of Russian, French and Romanian wheat directly from traders yesterday, traders said. State grains buyer GASC paid USD 416 a ton on a cost and freight basis (CFR), they said.

The breakdown: GASC reportedly bought 214k tons of Russian wheat, 170k tons of French wheat, and 60k tons of Romanian wheat for delivery in September and October. It booked nine shipments after receiving offers from 12 suppliers.

This time, no tender: GASC took the unusual step of booking the wheat directly from commodity traders. The authority typically purchases wheat via international tenders but in May the cabinet gave the go-ahead for the authority to buy directly from suppliers.

The purchases were made one day after GASC invited offers for Russian, French, Romanian, and Bulgarian wheat. All four are emerging as important suppliers for Egypt, which has booked shipments exclusively from them in the three successful international tenders since Russia’s war in Ukraine upended the global grain markets in February. Russian and Ukrainian wheat had accounted for around 80% of our imports before the war broke out.

That makes more than 1.2 mn tons in under a week: Yesterday’s purchase comes less than a week after GASC bought 815k tons for shipment in August, September and October in what is thought to have been the authority’s largest tender since at least 2012.