CAIRO  - Egypt's state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), said on Thursday it had bought 47,500 tonnes of milled white rice in an international purchasing tender for shipment Feb 1 - March 1.

GASC had been seeking short grain milled white rice of any origin, with 10-12 percent broken parts, and asked traders to submit 2 kg samples of their grains for a cooking test.

Traders said GASC received a total of 11 offers, of which all the Chinese samples and one Vietnamese rice sample were accepted, traders said  while all Indian samples and one Vietnamese sample failed the test.

GASC gave no further purchase details.

A trade source gave the following breakdown of the purchase:

* Mufaddal: 38,000 tonnes of Chinese rice plus 25 pct equating to 47,500 tonnes of rice at $405 CIF and letters of credit opened at site. In-land costs for transfer from port to warehouse are 490 Egyptian pounds per tonne.

 

(Reporting by Nadine Awadalla; Editing by Dale Hudson and Alexandra Hudson) ((Nadine.Awadalla@thomsonreuters.com;))