Global food commodities trader Bunge still intends to complete the delivery of a rejected French wheat cargo to Egypt even as it has begun legal proceedings against the latter's grain importing authority.
Bunge has initiated the legal proceedings against General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), after the grain importing body rejected the cargo last December, stating that it had fungus called ergot, reported Reuters.
However, the company maintained that ergot content in wheat cargo had met the country's specifications.
The company also stated that the country's inspectors had given clearance to the cargo when it was loaded for shipment.
Bunge CEO Soren Schroder told Reuters: "Their rejection of the cargo does not make any contractual sense. We just want to execute the contract."
Schroder added that the firm has filed a case with an administrative court in Egypt for "protecting our legal rights under a contract which we have executed on according to the conditions."
According to the country's Ministry of Supplies and GASC, wheat could contain up to 0.05% of ergot, even though it could reject such shipments.
Schroder added that Bunge is "working with the Egyptian authorities and GASC to find a solution to this as quickly as possible."
Currently, the 63,000-tonne shipment was lying outside the Egyptian port of Damietta.
Egypt is the one of top importers of wheat in the world and depends on shipments to meet domestic food needs.
Image: Bunge wheat cargo row continues. Photo: Courtesy of Simon Howden/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
