DUBAI  - Egypt's General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) set a tender on Thursday to buy an unspecified amount of wheat from global suppliers for shipment from March 21-31.

GASC Vice Chairman Ahmed Youssef said the authority was seeking to buy cargoes of soft and/or milling wheat from the United States, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Poland, Argentina, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Paraguay.

Tenders should reach GASC by noon local time (1000 GMT) on Friday. The results should come out after 3:30 p.m. local time on the same day. Wheat bids should be free-on-board, with a separate freight offer.

GASC will pay for wheat purchased in the tender by opening letters of credit on sight. Previously, GASC's letters of credit - banking guarantees for on-time payment from a buyer to a seller - were typically issued prior to shipment, with payment guaranteed within 180 days. 

The payment terms follow financing from the Islamic Trade Finance Corporation and are expected to lower the prices of wheat on offer as suppliers factor in a lower risk premium.

At its last wheat tender on Jan. 29, GASC bought 360,000 tonnes of French and Romanian wheat for March 11-20 shipment. It was GASC's first French wheat purchase since 2017. 

GASC is seeking to buy 55,000 to 60,000-tonne cargoes of the following:

 

U.S. North Pacific soft white wheat;

U.S. hard red winter wheat;

U.S. soft red winter wheat;

Russian milling wheat;

Ukrainian milling wheat, and

Australian standard white wheat.

 

GASC is also seeking 60,000-tonne cargoes of the following:

Canadian soft wheat;

French milling wheat;

German milling wheat;

Argentine bread wheat;

Polish milling wheat;

Kazakh milling wheat;

Romanian milling wheat;

Bulgarian milling wheat;

Hungarian milling wheat, and

Paraguayan milling wheat.

 

(Reporting by by Maha El Dahan in Dubai; writing by Karl Plume in Chicago Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Susan Thomas) ((karl.plume@thomsonreuters.com; +1 312 408 8704; Reuters Messaging: karl.plume.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))