Egyptian farmers have produced between 8 and 9 million tonnes of wheat this season and sold 3.6 million of them to the government, an Agriculture Ministry spokesman said on Saturday. The local procurement season runs until July and the government has said it is targeting 3.5 million to 4 million tonnes of local wheat this year.
Earlier on Saturday the Finance Ministry said it provided the state grains buyer GASC with letters of credit worth $64.3 million for the purchase of 395,000 tonnes of imported wheat. Egypt is the world's largest wheat importer. The ministry provided 1.1 billion Egyptian pounds ($60.9 million) for the purchase of wheat from local farmers in May, it said in a statement. It gave GASC a total of 2.2 billion pounds ($121.75 million)in emergency funding in May.