Wheat shipment to Egypt up 2.7x

In eight months 2019/20, Egypt imported large volumes of Ukrainian wheat, having exceeded Indonesia's procurement results, the APK-Inform consultancy reports.

In the period of July-February, 2.7 mln t of grain were shipped from Ukraine to Egypt, 2.7x more from the previous season's comparative period (1 mln t) and 40% higher on the whole previous season (1.9 mln t).

"Within the same period of the previous season, Egypt accounted for 8% of the total volume of grain shipped from Ukraine, in the current season this indicator has reached 17%," the report reads.

Russia is Ukraine's main competitor in the supply of wheat to Egypt. Under the current data, during 8 months of 2019/20, Russia shipped about 8.4 mln t of grain to Egypt, 37% more YoY.

Pursuant to the USDA latest report, the forecast for wheat export to Egypt in 2019/20 is 12.5 mln t, 11.1 mln t of which are Russian and Ukrainian grain supply in July-February.

"In 8M 2019/20, Russia and Ukraine covered in total about 89% of the projected volume of wheat export to Egypt, while in the relevant period of the previous season apx. 58%," analysts add.

As a reminder, since the start of 2019/20 (July 2019 – June 2020), Ukraine has supplied 43.63 mln t of staple grains to foreign markets. As of Mar. 18, agricultural commodities shipment increased by 8.61 mln t YoY.