Stock & Land Farm Online [AU]
31 Jan 2011
TRADE Minister Craig Emerson will seek an urgent assessment of the risks to Australia’s wheat trade from the upheaval in Egypt. Dr Emerson, who is due to return from overseas today, told The Australian Financial Review by phone from Dubai last night that he would ask his department to report to him as soon as possible about the potential risk to one of Australia’s most important wheat markets.
Before the outbreak of civil unrest, Egypt’s wheat buyers were trawling the international market for additional supplies, including from Aust ralia. But there is now concern that a breakdown of order in Egypt could make the government-buying system collapse – in all likelihood with a heavy impact on world wheat prices.
On Friday, in international commodities markets, wheat prices fell the most in two months amid concern about the potential loss of sales.
The slump in prices comes after an almost 70 per cent increase in world wheat prices over the past year.
The Australian Financial Review
Source: http://www.afr.com
