Egypt relied on competitive Russian wheat as imports dipped in 2022

Egypt relied on competitive Russian wheat as imports dipped in 2022

CAIRO - Egypt relied more heavily on Russian wheat imports last year despite a sharp drop in its imports of the grain and moves to diversify the sources of its wheat purchases, data seen by Reuters shows.

Though Egypt's wheat imports from Russia fell by 6.7% in 2022, Russia's share, including purchases by Egypt's state grains authority and the private sector, rose to 57% from 50% in 2021.

That partly made up for a fall in shipments from Ukraine, which accounted for 8.9% of Egypt's wheat imports, down from 28% in 2021.

The war in Ukraine disrupted wheat purchases by Egypt, one of the world's top buyers, and the government held talks with countries including India as it tried to diversify away from Black Sea supplies.

Economic fallout from the war also triggered a foreign currency crunch in Egypt, leading to a slowdown in overall imports, a backlog of goods in ports, and a $3 billion financial support package from the IMF.

Egypt maintains close political ties with Russia, but officials and traders say the preference for Russian wheat has been driven by cost, paid for in dollars.

"It's about the prices of course. We tender, and we check free-on-board and freight costs and then we