Egyptian Purchases of U.S. Wheat May Decline 23%

Egyptian wheat purchases from the U.S. may fall 23 percent next year even as total imports may increase, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report today.

Egypt, the world’s biggest wheat buyer, may purchase 500,000 tons from the U.S. in the year that starts on July 1, down from 650,000 tons in the prior year, the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service said in a report. Exporters shipped about 1.68 million metric tons from the U.S., the largest exporter, to Egypt in the year that started July 1, 2008, the USDA said.

The North African country will buy 9.2 million tons of wheat from all sources in the year that ends on June 30, 2010, the USDA said. That’s up from 9 million tons a year earlier, according to agency data.