Egypt restores wheat fungus tolerance policy

Egypt’s cabinet said yesterday that the country decided to reinstate a 0.05 per cent tolerance policy for wheat imports containing ergot fungus, backtracking on its zero-ergot wheat policy after its three successive global tenders have been boycotted by suppliers.

Egypt is the world’s top wheat importer.

The cabinet said in a statement that it decided to apply international standard specifications that allow no more than 0.05 per cent of ergot in wheat on all the contracted and new shipments. It added that the government will sign a contract with an international company to examine imported wheat shipments.

The Egyptian Minister of Health Ahmed Emad said that the imported wheat has been undergoing a purification process that reduces the presence of the fungus to zero per cent, Egypt’s state-newspaper Al-Ahram reported.

The government said that the zero-tolerance policy has led to the delay in arrival of 540,000 tonnes of the imported grain to Egypt, Al-Ahram added.