Russia and France have agreed to inspect wheat shipments before exporting them to Egypt, soothing some of Cairo’s concerns over the quality of its grain imports, Egypt’s Trade Minister said Thursday.
Egypt, one of the world’s top wheat importers, has been locked in a dispute over grain quality since an investigation was ordered into Russian wheat imported by an Egyptian firm in May.
In an effort to fix this, the Egyptian Trade Ministry announced new wheat import measures June 23, including a regulation requiring state quality certificates. Major exporters did not have mechanisms to issue such documents.
“We signed an agreement together [with Russia that] for further shipments there will be a government agency that is inspecting wheat before shipping,” Rachid Mohamed Rachid said in an interview. “Russians have accepted that and the French have also accepted,” he said, adding that Russia had agreed to the inspections when he visited Moscow last month, while the French deal was issued a few weeks ago.
Analysts have said the new regulations to ensure the quality of wheat imports have raised the bar so high that it risked deterring some key suppliers.
But Rachid said he thought the system would work, and hoped the measures, which also include doubling financial sureties for inspectors, would not lead to a rise in the cost of wheat.