Egypt approves India as wheat supplier; to import about one million tonnes

240,000 tonnes to be shipped in April itself; export approved after rigorous process of field visits and checks in quarantine facilities

In a big breakthrough, Egypt, the world’s largest importer of Russian and Ukrainian wheat, has approved India as one of its suppliers, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said. Egypt is likely to lift about one million tonnes of wheat from India, of which 240,000 tonnes will be shipped in April itself.

However, this is a very small proportion of the total annual wheat purchases by the African country, which buys 11-12 million tonnes of wheat from Russia, Ukraine and other countries in a year.

Sources said that export was approved after a rigorous process of field visits and checks in quarantine