Egypt's strategic wheat reserves are enough to last until the start of June, Supply Minister Khaled Hanafi said in a statement on Saturday.
Egypt's state-owned General Authority of Supply Commodities (GASC) bought 240,000 tons of wheat from France and Russia in a tender on Friday.
Egypt, the world's biggest importer of wheat, has seen its huge grain purchasing program disrupted this year by conflicting quality rules from the supply ministry and the agriculture ministry on permitted levels of a fungus present in wheat worldwide called ergot.
A letter from the Agriculture Ministry was sent to suppliers this week prior to Friday's tender to reassure them it would permit an 0.05 percent tolerance level of ergot in wheat imports, after having previously announced a zero tolerance policy.
Suppliers have been reluctant to make offers to GASC and those who did had been adding a risk premium to prices.
Egypt also bought 30,000 tons of US hard, red spring wheat last week, the first purchase of that variety since 2010, US Department of Agriculture data showed on Friday.
The sale comes as the wheat-buying program for Egypt, the world's top importer, has roiled futures markets. Chicago Board of Trade futures of US$4.62 per bushel are hovering near 5-1/2 year lows reached last week amid record global supplies.
The sale of US spring wheat represented the first sizeable purchase of wheat from the United States during the marketing year that started on June 1, 2015, with Egypt last summer buying roughly 8,000 tons of US soft, red winter wheat.
The US spring wheat likely would be used to blend with other wheat to produce flour that is subsidized for citizens to make bread, traders and analysts said.
"It is a surprise," Futures International analyst Terry Reilly said of the US sale. "But it's such a small amount that, in the larger scheme of things, it doesn't really impact the balance sheet."
US wheat exports to Egypt and to all global destinations are forecast as the lowest in decades due to cheaper grain on offer in Argentina, France and in the Black Sea region.
