USDA Trims Wheat Import Forecast for Egypt

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has trimmed its import forecast for Egypt. Pro Farmer’s First Thing Today reports the reduction is due to credit issues. A USDA office in Egypt cut its wheat import forecast for both 2015-16 and 2016-17 to 11.6 million metric tons and 11.8 million metric tons, respectively. USDA says the reductions are “due to a persistent shortage of foreign currency that has made opening letters of credit more difficult, significantly hampering imports." But USDA also noted that rising feed demand should boost the nation's corn imports in 2016-17 by around three percent from the previous season to 8.6 million metric tons. That is just below USDA's official 8.75 million metric ton import outlook.