The country’s grain buyer, GASC, set a cap on demurrage fees; suppliers are now responsible for only the first 12 days of demurrage at a cost of $12,000 per day. Suppliers had previously been responsible for any duration and all demurrage fees accrued.

GASC also hiked sieving fees to $3 per tonne from $2 per tonne.

In addition, to save costs Egypt incurs importing wheat, the GASC has relaxed the protein content requirements from key grain origins. The minimum content limit was reduced from 12% to 11.5% for Russian, Romanian and Ukrainian what, from 11.5% to 11% for French wheat, from 11.5% to 11% for U.S. soft wheat and from 12.5% to 12% for U.S hard red wheat.

According to UkrAgroConsult, some trading companies had stopped participating in purchase tenders organized by the GASC because cost of demurrage in Egypt’s ports were too high and vessel idleness was too long.