(Dow Jones) -- A shipment of wheat bound for Egypt has been rejected in a Romanian port for containing the ergot fungus, while other shipments face delays due to the painstaking checks required to meet Egypt's controversial zero-tolerance policy, traders said on Thursday.
Traders said one shipment of around 60,000 tons of Romanian grain sold to Egypt's state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities, was rejected in the port of Constanza by a delegation of Egyptian inspectors after they said they found traces of ergot.
Meanwhile, a shipment of Russian grain has been delayed in the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea and may yet be rejected outright, they said.
One trader spoke of the "huge work" now involved in meeting Egypt's standards, and said unless they are relaxed no trading firms will be willing to sell wheat to the world's largest importer.