Egypt's highest administrative court has ordered that the country accept wheat with traces of ergot. A lower court had ruled last year that there should be no tolerance for the issue of ergot in imported wheat. Suppliers on the world market were thereby deeply insecure.
Egypt, the world's largest wheat importer, confused the international cereal market with the introduction of zero tolerance for ergot in import wheat in 2016. As a result, international bidders boycotted bids for the purchase of wheat, resulting in the country reintroducing the internationally accepted tolerance of 0.05% ergot stock in a decree. That was until a lower administrative court reversed this order.
The confusion over the Egyptian nutritive policy then ensured that international bidders calculated high risk premiums in the tenders, making the offers too expensive for Egypt.
The Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture is planning to convene a committee to explain the industry standard rules to the Quarantine Authority. This authority had previously demanded a general ergot ban.
Text:HANSA Derivatives Trading GmbH /
