Egypt refuses Russian wheat due to price dispute: who will it switch to?

Egypt plans to replace Russian wheat supplies with almost half a million tons from France and Bulgaria after Russia stopped supplying Russian grain due to unresolved price issues. This information was provided to Bloomberg by an insider.

Based on the information received, Russia did not accept the price of wheat offered by Egypt, which led to the blocking of the deal. According to the sources, this is the second time in the last few months that the purchase of Russian wheat by an Egyptian state buyer has been hampered by Russia's attempts to set an unofficial minimum price.

In early September, Egypt's Minister of Food, Ali El-Mosili, announced the conclusion of an agreement with the Egyptian General Administration for the supply of wheat. However, this deal was concluded at a price of $270 per ton, including freight, which was less than the unofficial minimum price that Russia was trying to set at the time.

Shortly thereafter, Egypt announced that it had authorized the grain trader Solaris to supply grain of any origin.

The capacity of Russian grain ports is overwhelmed after two consecutive years of record harvests, making Russia the main supplier and price maker on the world market. However, the oversupply is driving prices down, prompting officials to set a minimum price to support the market. However, the introduction of such a price cap has proved to be unresearched and inconsistent, according to Bloomberg.