You're reading: Egypt to remove Ukraine from wheat suppliers’ list in 2013

Cairo - Egypt, the world's largest importer of wheat, will remove Ukraine from the list of its wheat suppliers next year, as Kyiv has announced plans to halt exports as of December 1, 2012, according to Egypt's General Authority for Supply Commodities, GASC.

As Bloomberg reported, GASC has received an official notification from Ukraine, saying that from December 1, wheat will not be shipped abroad, according to delivered, said GASC Vice Chairman Nomani Nomani.

He said Ukraine will be removed from the list of wheat suppliers to Egypt from January 2013.

In future, Ukraine will have to meet certain conditions in order to be re-instated on Egypt’s list of potential suppliers, according to Nomani. Among them, Kyiv will have to declare there will be no ban on future contracts.

According to an Egyptian publication, Ahram, the countries that buy grain from Ukraine are extremely unhappy about the country’s decision to halt deliveries, although traders said they were not surprised, as the market has long been waiting for such an announcement from Ukraine.

“Uncertainty about exports from the Black Sea region has placed importer Egypt in a potentially vulnerable position. GASC has been an active buyer in recent months, snapping up almost seven months’ wheat stocks for Egypt in a tight global market,” reads an article at Ahram.

In January-April 2013, GASC plans to buy at least 1.5 million tonnes of wheat from Russia, Australia, Argentina, Canada, the United States, and France.