Egypt wheat deal close, but will exports rise?

Jun 26, 2008 08:44:45

By Sybille de La Hamaide PARIS, June 25 (Reuters) - French grain exporters are close to a deal with Egypt that would ease Cairo's quality thresholds and may allow more wheat from France to be shipped to one of the world's biggest importers next season, officials said. But whatever the result of the talks, which are still in progress, they may not allow France to regain its seat among Egypt's privileged suppliers to Egypt as price will still be the main determining factor, analysts said. "A deal should be reached before the harvest," Francois Gatel, head of France Export Cereales, the group that promotes French grains abroad, told Reuters. "For the moment the ball is moving from one court to the other but we will in any case get to a deal, in which we hope -- and we can be optimistic -- a certain number of French concerns will be taken into account," he said. France, the European Union's main wheat grower, traditionally exports around 1 million tonnes of the 6 million that Egypt buys each year but sales slumped in 2007-2008 due to the crop's poor quality and a lack of competitiveness. By the end of April, French soft wheat exports to Egypt were at 126,000 tonnes after the North African country turned mostly to cheaper Russian, U.S. and Kazakh wheat. French exporters now want to convince Cairo to return to their market next season. Reports about the talks that started several weeks ago first centred on Egypt buying one million tonnes of wheat in 2008/2009 but discussions with Egypt's main grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) now focus on easing import specifications, officials said. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticl e/7608811