Australia's monopoly wheat exporter AWB has sold to date 2.1 million tons of Australian wheat to Egypt from the 2003/04 AWB National Pool. The sales are worth approximately $500 million to Australian wheat growers, and represent the largest annual sales program to Egypt for more than 15 years.
AWB Managing Director Andrew Lindberg said sales were for delivery from December 2003 forward, and AWB had already shipped more than 1.3 million tons of that wheat to the Egyptian market.
“Egypt is a significant white wheat buyer, and AWB has maximized its opportunities in what is a very competitive market – especially for soft white wheat," said Lindberg. He added that Australia’s soft wheat had become a significant component of Egypt’s bread market, due to its high extraction rates and production of bright white flour.
In conjunction with its Egyptian customers via its Cairo office, AWB has been developing a new market for harder, higher protein wheat types. “Included in our sales to Egypt this year is about 500,000 tons of hard wheat,” Lindberg said.
Egypt is one of the world largest wheat purchasers, importing about six to seven million tons of wheat annually. Lindberg said due to local milling requirements, demand from Egypt was likely to be higher than average this season, and that AWB is well positioned to capitalize on further demand opportunities for the 2003/04 Pool.
AWB is Australia’s major national grain asset manager. Its core activities are the pooling, marketing, trading, financing, risk management and logistical management of Australian wheat. The company markets wheat and other grains to more than 40 countries and is the world’s second largest wheat exporter with a 16 percent global market share. — (menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
