CAIRO: Egypt, the world's top wheat importer, has purchased 3.7 million tonnes of domestic wheat from its local harvest that ended last week, on par with its purchases last year, the state news agency quoted a senior official as saying.

Mamdouh Abdel Fattah, vice chairman of Egypt's main state-buyer, the General Authority of Supply Commodities (GASC), also said in a statement carried by state news agency MENA on Monday evening that the state had paid 10 billion Egyptian pounds ($1.40 billion) owed to farmers.