EGYPT: Buying spree still on despite cancelation
Published: 03/12/2010, 8:29:09 AM
Egypt's plan to buy 1 million metric tonnes of raw sugar this year remained intact, the country's trade minister said on Thursday, after the state sugar buyer cancelled a 300,000 tonne tender for local consumption, according to Reuters.
"We will definitely be buying this quantity," Rachid Mohamed Rachid told reporters.
But so far this year, the country's state-owned buyer Sugar and Integrated Industries Company (SIIC) has not made any purchases for local consumption, an official at SIIC told Reuters, due to volatile prices.
"They're making commercial decisions according to the market conditions," Rachid said, referring to the state buyer.
SIIC cancelled the tender to buy 300,000 tonnes of raw sugar because of volatile prices.
"The prices are not suitable for the local market," a company official, who declined to be named, told Reuters. "Global prices are still going down. We will wait until the prices are stable," the SIIC official added.