Russian wheat purchased by Egypt's state grain buyer is now arriving following delays in shipments in the run-up to Russia's imposition of new wheat export taxes, traders said on Tuesday.
"Ships are now arriving in Egypt, at least two," one European trader said. "The full export tax was paid on the shipments."
Several ships loading tens of thousands of tonnes of wheat for Egypt's state grain buyer General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) were stuck in Russian Black Sea ports in late January. Exporters were unable to complete shipments before the start of the wheat export tax by Moscow on Feb. 1.
Traders said the grain exporters were now having to pay the Russian export tax.
"The suppliers hadn't factored in the export tax or planned for it but they had to pay to get the shipments out," a trader in Cairo said. (Reporting by Maha El Dahan and Michael Hogan, editing by Jason Neely)