CAIRO: Egypt’s state grains buyer started offering yellow corn on the country’s newly-launched commodities exchange on Thursday, exchange head Ibrahim Ashmawy said in a statement on Saturday.

Egypt’s state buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), started issuing rare tenders for corn earlier this year in an effort to address a feed crisis that hurt small producers and even led some farmers to cull chicks.

Supply Minister Ali Moselhy had said the corn would be offered to local producers on the exchange.

Egypt, a major buyer of basic commodities, has been suffering from a foreign currency crunch that sent the pound tumbling by nearly 50% against the dollar, suppressed imports, and pushed official headline inflation to 31.9% in February, its highest for five and a half years.

Egypt’s annual urban consumer inflation rate in March climbed to 32.7% year-on-year, just shy of an all-time record.