Posted on July, 20, 2018 at 10:44 am
Egypt, one of the world's largest wheat buyers, has removed a top supplier from its list of approved sellers after multiple delays in the delivery of wheat cargoes.
Egypt said in May that Dubai-based AOS had failed to deliver on two 60,000 tonne cargoes despite being offered extensions, and it later cancelled one of them.
AOS fulfilled about 20 percent of Egypt's annual wheat requirements, including providing 700,000 tonnes per year to state-buyer GASC, the company's chairman said last November.
Egypt's cabinet on Wednesday said it approved the purchase of 120,000 tonnes of wheat previously awarded by its state grain buyer GASC to AOS and Egypt's Union, that acts as its agent. The measure is intended to facilitate payments to the original suppliers.
A GASC official said the cargoes the cabinet approved on Wednesday had already arrived in Egypt, but did not name the original trading firms.
He also told Reuters that AOS and Union, had now been removed from the list of approved GASC suppliers.
Cairo spends about $1.5 billion annually on wheat imports to stock a sprawling bread subsidy programme relied on by tens of millions of Egyptians.
Source: UkrAgroConsult