The Minister Plenipotentiary Ashraf Ezz Al Din, Head of the Egyptian Economic and Commercial Office in Washington, said the US Department of Agriculture has approved that Egypt can use the US Credit Guarantee Program (known as GSM-102) to import the US wheat. This the first time that Egypt uses this program during the current fiscal year, which started in October 2012.
In a statement released today by the office, Ashraf Ezz Al Din referred that this program imposed because the lenders still worry about the ability of Egypt to pay back the dues of its needs of commodities, as this program provides guarantees to repay 98% of the transaction.
The US Department of Agriculture announced that Egypt signed a contract of $17.7 million of wheat, about 60.000 tons, within the last two weeks through that program. The contract was signed with one of the US firms at value of $296.75 per ton of wheat.
He elaborated that the shipping will be in April 2013; mentioning that this company has sold 60.000 tons of wheat to Egypt on 2nd February 2013, which would be shipped in March 2013 at price of $306.8 per ton.
These quantities of wheat, which exported by the US to Egypt, are extremely tenuous; as the quantities at the end of May 2012 reached 1.1 million tons.
