Ontario wheat farmers have elbowed their way into Egypt, the world’s biggest and most consistent market for soft wheat.
Since July, the Ontario Wheat Producers’ Marketing Board has sold slightly more than 600,000 tonnes of soft red winter wheat to the African country.
The shipments mark the first significant sales of Canadian wheat to Egypt since 1977.
“This is pretty exciting for the Ontario wheat industry,” said board marketing manager Dana Omland.
He said the Ontario board took advantage of the record wheat crop produced in the province in 2006 to make inroads into the Egyptian market.
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“Last year we knew the number of acres that had gone into the ground (in the fall of 2005) and that is what prompted us to go to Egypt and try to open up this market,” he said.
During his trip to visit potential buyers, Omland was also able to allay their concerns over issues such as quality and moisture levels.
Farmers seeded 1.2 million acres and produced a crop of 2.6 million tonnes, including 1.6 million tonnes of soft red winter, 350,000 tonnes each of soft white and hard red winter and 175,000 tonnes of hard red spring.
About 600,000 tonnes a year is consumed domestically in Ontario and 600,000 is exported to the United States. Whatever is left over is available for exports to markets such as North Africa, the Middle East, Mexico and, this year, India and Egypt.
Egypt traditionally imports five to six million tonnes of wheat annually, buying from the former Soviet Union republics, the European Union (mainly France) and the U.S.
Omland said that while precise numbers are not available, he suspects Canada is near the top of the list of Egypt’s wheat suppliers this year.
However, he was reluctant to make forecasts as to how much the board would ship by the end of the year or what the long-term prospects are for sales to that lucrative market.
Egypt buys through regular tenders, and it’s impossible to predict ahead of time whether one will be successful in bidding.
“But certainly my hope is to keep Egypt as an important long-term customer for Ontario wheat,” Omland said.
Egypt is not interested in the high protein wheat grown in Western Canada. The Canadian Wheat Board has sold an average of 56,000 tonnes a year of wheat, including durum, to Egypt over the past 10 years. Sales were a paltry 3,000 tonnes in 2004-05 and a robust 124,000 tonnes in 2003-04.
