Raoul Nehme told Reuters a day after Tuesday’s devastating explosion that Lebanon needed reserves for at least three months to ensure food security and was looking at other storage areas.

The explosion was the most powerful ever to rip through Beirut, a city torn apart by civil war three decades ago. The economy was already in meltdown before the blast, slowing grain imports as the nation struggled to find hard currency for purchases.

“There is no bread or flour crisis,” the minister said. “We have enough inventory and boats on their way to cover the needs of Lebanon on the long term.”

He said grain reserves in Lebanon’s remaining silos stood at “a bit less than a month” but said the destroyed silos had only held 15,000 tonnes of the grain at the time, much less than capacity which one official put at 120,000 tonnes.

Beirut’s port district was a mangled wreck, disabling the main entry point for imports to feed a nation of more than six million people.

Ahmed Tamer, the director of Tripoli port, Lebanon’s second biggest facility, said his port did not have grain storage but cargoes could be taken to warehouses two km away.

Alongside Tripoli, the ports of Saida, Selaata and Jiyeh were also equipped to handle grain, the economy minister said.

“We fear there will be a huge supply chain problem, unless there is an international consensus to save us,” said Hani Bohsali, head of the importers’ syndicate.

U.N. agencies are meeting on Wednesday to coordinate relief efforts for Beirut, Tamara al-Rifai, a spokeswoman for the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, told Reuters from Amman.

“People are extremely poor, it’s increasingly difficult for anyone to buy food and the fact that Beirut is the largest port in Lebanon makes it a very bad situation,” she said. “We are looking at Tripoli, but it is a much smaller port.”

Reserves of flour were sufficient to cover market needs for a month and a half and there were four ships carrying 28,000 tonnes of wheat heading to Lebanon, Ahmed Hattit, the head of the wheat importers union, told Al-Akhbar newspaper.

Lebanon is trying to transfer immediately four vessels carrying 25,000 tonnes of flour to the port in Tripoli, one official told LBCI news channel.

An Egyptian-operated ship was unloading 5,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat at the port at the time of the blast, but the cargo is “in good condition,” the shipping company’s operations director told Reuters Wednesday.

Two Syrian crew members aboard the Mero Star were seriously injured in the blast and others were wounded, Farid Hashem said.

— Reporting for Reuters by Ellen Francis, Tom Perry and Dahlia Nehme in Beirut, Maha El Dahan in Dubai and Nadine Awadalla in Cairo, additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in London and Stephen Farrell in Jerusalem.

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The long-awaited flour mills sale was one of the first privatizations the kingdom planned as part of a wide-reaching overhaul of its economy.

The first milling company was awarded to Raha AlSafi consortium at 2.027 billion Saudi riyals (C$734.9 million), while the third mill went to Alrajhi-Ghurair-Masafi consortium for 750 million riyals, a statement by the National Center for Privatization and PPP (NCP) and the Saudi Grains Organization (SAGO) said.

The Raha AlSafi consortium was led by Saudi Arabian firm Almutlaq Group and also including Al Safi, Abunayyan Holding and United Arab Emirates-based Essa Al Ghurair Investment, said a source familiar with the matter, adding investment bank Canaccord Genuity acted as the financial adviser.

Alrajhi-Ghurair-Masafi included Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi and Al Ghurair Foods of the United Arab Emirates, the source said. The final financial bids were submitted on Sunday.

The privatization process had attracted initial interest from some of the world’s largest agribusiness companies, including Archer Daniels Midland and Bunge and was seen as a litmus test for other large state asset sales to follow.

But the source familiar with the matter said the bidders had mainly been from the Gulf, adding that Louis Dreyfus had been involved, before later dropping out.

The grain mills on sale come under the kingdom’s monopoly state grain buyer SAGO, one of the world’s largest wheat and barley importers.

“The crucial piece of information to know going forward is whether any of these companies will eventually be allowed to import their own wheat as opposed to receiving it from SAGO,” said a Middle East-based industry expert.

The qualification phase for the second and final stage of the privatization of the flour milling sector will launch shortly and include the sale of the second and fourth milling companies, according to the statement.

The lengthy process which started in 2016 has discouraged some potential bidders, according to grain industry sources.

HSBC is acting as the sole financial advisor for the process.

— Reporting for Reuters by Maha El Dahan and Saeed Azhar in Dubai and Tom Arnold in London.

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SALIC, an arm of the country’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), said it was also looking to expand its investments in the Black Sea region, which already includes almost 114,000 acres of land in western Ukraine.

“We are considering many opportunities and Iraq is definitely on the list,” newly appointed managing director Khaled al-Aboodi told Reuters.

Iraq on Wednesday received pledges of US$30 billion, mostly in credit facilities and investment from allies after a major donor conference in Kuwait.

Amongst the opportunities on display for investors during the event were four million dunums (about 988,000 acres) of agricultural land, Iraqi agriculture ministry spokesman Hameed al-Nayef said.

“Agricultural land that will be offered is across Iraq and investors should choose what crops to grow but we are giving priority to strategic crops like wheat, barley, corn, sesame and rice,” he said.

The mechanism for investment in Iraqi farmland and terms will be up for negotiations with interested firms.

Aboodi said SALIC was not at the Kuwait conference but that, “as time goes by we will look more closely,” at Iraqi farmland.

Saudi Arabia began scaling back its domestic wheat-growing program in 2008, planning to rely completely on imports by 2016 to save water.

SALIC’s agricultural investments include farmland, grain silos and terminals, as part of Saudi Arabia’s food security drive. Its holdings in Canada include a joint-venture stake with Bunge in grain handler G3, the former Canadian Wheat Board.

Iraq, itself a major wheat and rice importer, has seen its most fertile province, Nineveh, lose production of strategic crops after Islamic State took over.

Iraq declared victory over Islamic State in December, having taken back all territory the militants captured in 2014 and 2015.

Industry sources said there were investment opportunities in Mosul and some western areas close to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.

SALIC also said it was looking to grow its investments in the Black Sea region. “The Black Sea is a strategic place to look at given the attractive farming conditions and proximity to Saudi,” Aboodi said.

In October, SALIC set up a five-billion riyal (C$1.67 billion) joint venture with UAE agricultural firm Al Dahra to invest in the 10 countries across the Black Sea region.

— Reporting for Reuters by Maha El Dahan; additional reporting by Moayed Kenany in Baghdad.

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Egypt last year scrapped a ban on ergot in grain imports after it effectively halted purchase tenders because trading houses refused to participate, saying the ban was an impossible requirement.

In its place, Egypt imposed a more internationally standard 0.05 per cent tolerance threshold for ergot and restructured its food inspection system, transferring responsibility for strategic agricultural imports from the agriculture ministry’s quarantine body, which favoured the ban, to the trade ministry.

A ruling scheduled for next week will scrap that new system, effectively reinstating the ergot ban, according to lawyers who were informed of the court’s decision verbally on Tuesday.

The verdict is expected to be formally announced on June 13 and is subject to appeal but must be implemented during the appeal process, said Khaled Ali, one of the lawyers on the case.

An agriculture ministry spokesman told Reuters the inspection system for grain imports remained unchanged, as did the permitted level of ergot in wheat shipments — currently 0.05 per cent.

The trade ministry declined to comment.

Return to uncertainty

The case was brought by a group of quarantine inspection employees in their capacity as citizens, not by the body itself, as well as several other parties, including some connected to the health ministry, which also takes part in inspections.

The inspectors involved said the new system illegally stripped the quarantine body of its authority and handed it to a trade ministry body ill-equipped to oversee inspections, allowing imports to enter with hazardous contaminants harmful to plant and human health.

“All that mattered to us in this, is that this decision, when it was issued, allowed for the entry of things at levels that would harm people — like ergot, ambrosia, and white mould,” said Mohamed Zaki, a quarantine inspector who raised one of the cases.

Grains traders have said a zero tolerance ergot policy makes doing business with Egypt too risky given the costly possibility that their cargoes may be rejected upon arrival.

“My worry is this decision could lead to a return to uncertainty and even a disruption of Egypt’s wheat imports just as the situation has been returning to normal,” one German trader said, echoing the sentiment of several others.

Egypt last month purchased about 500,000 tonnes of wheat in tenders held by its state-grain buyer GASC. Turnout among traders has returned to normal following several boycotts last year in response to the zero policy.

The current system was imposed by a decree in November that named the General Organization for Export and Import Control (GOEIC), which is part of the trade ministry, as the body responsible for inspecting the imports.

— Reporting for Reuters by Eric Knecht and Maha El Dahan; additional reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein and Omar Fahmy in Cairo and Michael Hogan in Hamburg.

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Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said late on Tuesday the country would look to import 500,000 tonnes of rice and 400,000 tonnes of sugar to boost reserves and keep prices in the domestic market down.

The statement came after state grain buyer GASC announced three separate tenders in the space of one day for wheat, vegetable oils and sugar.

“I would definitely say that the current plan does appear to be stocking up on imported stocks before a devaluation. We’re seeing this happening in sugar, rice, beans, and the current campaign in wheat,” one Cairo-based commodities trader said, echoing several others who spoke to Reuters.

GASC declined to comment on the issue.

Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer, operates a massive food subsidy program to sell essential items to the country’s poorest citizens.

“We’ve received numerous inquiries from different government agencies — some military as well — and they seem quite eager to get their hands on commodities,” the trader said.

Pressure has been mounting on Egypt’s central bank to devalue its currency as the country contends with an acute dollar shortage brought on by the flight of tourists and foreign investors, major sources of hard currency that fled after the 2011 uprising.

Speculation is rife that the bank could devalue Egypt’s pound in coming days to close a widening gap with the black market rate, which has ticked up to more than 14 pounds to the U.S. dollar in recent days compared with the official rate of 8.8 pounds (C$1.31).

Essential commodities purchased by the government are among the few items that receive dollar allocations at the official rate, with the vast majority of importers forced to resort to the more expensive black market.

The additional imports are part of an “urgent plan to guarantee the stability of strategic stocks of essential food items and ensure there is at least six months in stock at all times,” a cabinet statement said.

While some traders saw the recent uptick in government tenders as proof of an impending devaluation, others said the government’s campaign may be too late, with goods likely to arrive in Egypt after a possible rate cut or currency flotation.

“Unfortunately stocks are only built with executed contracts and not with confirmed ones,” another Cairo-based trader said.

The dash to fill stocks comes as prices have been climbing on commodities such as sugar and rice in recent weeks, partly due to shortages in the domestic market, traders told Reuters.

Sugar is trading locally at almost double its price from two months ago and quantities available to the private sector have been severely limited, one trader said.

— Reporting for Reuters by Eric Knecht in Cairo and Maha El Dahan in Abu Dhabi.

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The decree, seen by Reuters, brings the ministry in line with an agriculture ministry decree issued last week reinstating the ergot ban, a policy that previously hampered the world’s largest wheat buyer’s ability to import grain.

The health ministry’s decision is the latest in a back and forth battle over the highly contentious wheat import regulation that has halted state grain tenders, raised prices, and been the subject of debate between and within ministries that have often advocated policies at odds with one another.

Ergot, a common grains fungus that can cause hallucinations in large amounts, is considered harmless in low quantities. The toxins can also be harmful to livestock consuming ergot-contaminated grain or grasses. More common international standards allow a 0.05 per cent tolerance level in grain.

Traders, who say it is nearly impossible to guarantee zero ergot, said Monday’s decree was significant as it brings all three ministries that oversee the policy — supply, health and agriculture — in line for the first time and leaves little room for the state grain buyer to relax the rules if need be.

“It’s almost impossible now to change the decree, it’s like they want to force the zero ergot and think that everyone should abide by it,” one Cairo-based trader said.

Full circle

When Egypt’s agriculture quarantine authority began rejecting shipments containing trace levels of ergot last year, it was the lone advocate of a stringent zero tolerance policy, on the margins of a debate over quality control.

At the time, the quarantine authority’s own ministry, the agriculture ministry, publicly claimed to follow the tolerance level of up to 0.05 per cent.

In recent weeks, however, and following an agriculture ministry-led study that concluded ergot could pose a threat to plant life, the quarantine’s strict position has been formally adopted by every major institution overseeing the ergot rules.

The impact on imports is already being seen. Last week, at the first tender state grain buyer GASC (General Authority for Supply Commodities) has held with zero ergot stipulated in its tender booklet, only one supplier made an offer.

GASC was forced to cancel the tender, underscoring the difficulty the country may face sustaining a massive bread subsidy programme while also demanding standards suppliers say are unattainable.

Traders said the health ministry decree will now make it harder for GASC, a long time proponent of the more tolerant 0.05 standard, to ease the rules should it continue to face low turnout at tenders.

“GASC used to base their 0.05 per cent policy on the basis of the health ministry’s position, so now that they’ve changed that it means the decision is likely final,” another Cairo trader said.

Egypt’s agricultural quarantine authority has argued that even trace amounts of ergot can contaminate plant life and give the fungus a foothold to flourish where it does not exist now.

The unified stance on ergot also comes amid what traders have said are heightened inspection measures at ports of origin in recent weeks, implemented to guarantee zero ergot.

Traders say the measures, which include re-inspecting and replacing wheat suspected of containing even single grains infected with ergot, have held up shipments at ports and added to the cost of doing business with Egypt.

“Everything is a mess in Egypt and in the ports of Constanta and Novorossiysk,” said one trader, referring to wheat shipments that have been held up in Romania and Russia.

— Reporting for Reuters by Maha El Dahan in Abu Dhabi and Eric Knecht in Cairo; additional reporting by Michael Hogan in Hamburg.

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It was the country’s first tender to purchase wheat since it reinstated its zero-tolerance ergot policy on Sunday — a move that baffled traders as implementation of the policy late last year had led to disruptions to its wheat buying program and higher prices.

Ergot produces toxic alkaloids that can lead to illness or hallucinations in large quantities, but is considered harmless to people at low levels. The toxins can also be harmful to livestock consuming ergot-contaminated grain or grasses.

The near-complete boycott at Wednesday’s tender underscores the difficulty of requiring ergot-free shipments even for a country such as Egypt, the world’s largest wheat buyer. It also calls into question Cairo’s ability to sustain a massive bread subsidy program while imposing a rule suppliers say is impossible to guarantee.

“After only receiving one offer we cancelled,” Ahmed Youssef, vice-chairman of GASC, told Reuters, with no further comment.

Trading house Venus submitted the lone offer on Wednesday, for 55,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat at US$179.32 a tonne on a free-on-board basis, traders said. Traders said other sellers boycotted the tender as they oppose Egypt’s policy.

GASC has in the past adhered to the more common international standard of 0.05 per cent ergot allowance, a level Egypt’s agricultural quarantine authority has criticized, arguing that even these trace amounts can contaminate plant life and give the fungus a foothold to flourish where it currently does not exist.

A total ban on the fungus imposed by the quarantine authority caused major disruptions to Egypt’s wheat imports earlier this year, with global trading houses declining to take part in its tenders.

Egypt subsequently adopted the more lax 0.05 per cent policy in July, only to reverse course on Sunday and announce it would once again not allow any ergot, an about-turn that helped push global wheat prices down.

Traders had anticipated that GASC may be forced to cancel the tender because of the poor response, though it was not legally required to do so.

A document outlining wheat specifications for the tender closing on Wednesday stated that, in accordance with an agriculture ministry decision, the tolerance for ergot fungus should be zero per cent, marking the first time GASC specifications matched the quarantine’s zero policy.

Despite the cancellation traders said low stocks could force GASC to return to the market soon.

“The stocks are very low and can probably only cover up to the second week of November and that’s including all the shipments that were booked since the last tender,” one Cairo-based trader said.

“It’s not looking good if they don’t take a decision and they’ve lost most of their credibility in the market,” he said.

The country’s renewed difficulty in purchasing wheat comes even as up to two million tonnes of the five million tonnes it announced as locally procured may be missing from stocks, the result of a local wheat-buying scandal that forced the minister of supply to resign last week.

GASC normally falls under Egypt’s supply ministry but is being run by trade minister Tarek Kabil following the supply minister’s resignation.

— Reporting for Reuters by Michael Hogan, Maha El Dahan and Eric Knecht; additional reporting for Reuters by Sybille de la Hamaide and Valerie Parent in Paris.

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The world’s largest wheat importer said on Sunday it was re-introducing its zero tolerance policy on ergot — which can lead to hallucinations in large quantities but is considered harmless at minor levels — and would apply the decision retroactively.

“The ban will be applied to every grain of wheat entering the country. As of now no infected wheat will enter either from upcoming tenders or previous ones,” agriculture ministry spokesman Eid Hawash said, giving no reason for the decision.

Just last month, Egypt said it would accept imported wheat shipments containing 0.05 per cent, a common international standard, of ergot in imports, settling a dispute with suppliers that had hampered the country’s massive purchasing program.

A Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) risk assessment conducted earlier this year concluded that ergot posed no threat to Egyptian crops, but the agriculture ministry said at the time it would reinstate zero tolerance if future studies showed ergot affecting crops.

On Sunday, the head of the country’s plant pathology centre told Reuters a follow-up study found that ergot did pose a risk to crops if it entered the country, and that the FAO report had not taken into consideration the different strands of ergot and Egypt’s hot climate.

“There are 15 countries with ergot but we won’t stop dealing with them entirely we will just make sure that when wheat is imported from these countries it comes from areas of those countries free of ergot,” Ashraf Khalil said.

The July decision resulted in larger numbers of suppliers participating in General Authority for Supply Commodities’ (GASC) state tenders.

But Sunday’s reversal means suppliers risk having cargoes of previously agreed shipments rejected and that Egypt may face a renewed boycott of state grain tenders and raised prices. The move could hinder state grain importer GASC from making purchases needed to fill the country’s large supply gap.

Suppliers have long maintained that guaranteeing zero ergot is nearly impossible. Some told Reuters they would likely not participate in tenders following Sunday’s decision.

“It’s going to be a disaster,” one Cairo-based trader said.

GASC, which is in favour of the international 0.05 per cent standard, was not immediately available for comment.

— Reporting for Reuters by Eric Knecht in Cairo and Maha El Dahan in Abu Dhabi; additional reporting by Ehab Farouk.

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Hanafi’s resignation is the most senior-level fallout from a probe into whether millions of dollars intended to subsidize farmers were used to purchase wheat that did not exist.

“Experience has proven that being in a position of authority is no longer a picnic,” Hanafi said as he announced his resignation on state television.

Egypt, the world’s largest importer of wheat, has been mired in controversy over whether much of the roughly five million tonnes of grain the government said it procured in this year’s harvest exists only on paper, the result of local suppliers falsifying receipts to boost government payments.

If Egypt’s local wheat procurement figures were misrepresented, it may have to spend more on foreign wheat purchases to meet local demand — even as it faces a dollar shortage that has sapped its ability to import.

“It’s important that whoever comes next knows that the minister is not above accountability and will always be monitored and under the spotlight,” Nader Noureldin, a former supply ministry advisor, said.

Egypt’s supply ministry is in charge of a massive food subsidy programme and the main state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC).

Parliamentarians who formed a fact-finding commission to investigate the fraud have said upward of two million tonnes, or 40 per cent of the locally procured crop, may be missing.

The general prosecutor has ordered arrests, travel bans and asset freezes for several private silo owners and others allegedly involved in the scandal.

While Hanafi has not been accused of directly profiting from misallocated subsidies, parliamentarians, industry officials and media commentators have in recent weeks pinned blame for the crisis squarely on his shoulders.

“Hanafi started very strong but unfortunately he trusted the wrong people who ran the ministry for their own benefit which led to huge loss of the subsidy,” said Waleed Diab, managing director of Egyptian Millers Co., one of the country’s largest private mills.

The prospect of hundreds of millions of dollars in squandered government subsidies comes as Egypt gears up for a raft of austerity measures, including various subsidy cuts agreed to as part of a US$12 billion IMF programme that could bring pain for its poorest people.

Teflon minister

Pressure has been mounting on the minister, who was appointed in 2014, ever since earlier this year when parliament began investigating whether a bumper wheat crop — nearly five million tonnes delivered by farmers versus three million to 3.5 million normally procured — may be the result of foul play.

In recent weeks parliament’s wheat commission has captured the attention of the Egyptian public, with MPs making highly publicized site visits to private silos suspected of fraud, arriving unannounced to tally missing wheat before reporting their findings to the local press.

Critics have also accused Hanafi of bungling an array of the ministry’s most critical duties.

From smart cards for bread distribution that were hacked, wasting millions of dollars in subsidized flour, to the ministry’s failure to purchase rice last harvest — an oversight that led to nationwide shortages of subsidized rice and price spikes that hit the country’s poorest — Hanafi has drawn a broad coalition of critics.

Criticism took an unexpected turn last week, when fiery media personality and MP Mostafa Bakry accused Hanafi on television of using seven million Egyptian pounds (C$1.02 million) in state funds to maintain a residency at a posh downtown Cairo hotel.

The minister later said in a statement he had paid for the long-term hotel residence with his own personal funds.

— Reporting for Reuters by Eric Knecht and Maha El Dahan; additional reporting for Reuters by Asma Alsharif.

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Earlier this year traders boycotted state wheat tenders after the country’s agriculture quarantine authority began to apply a zero tolerance policy for ergot, a common grain fungus.

Suppliers said at the time the standard was impossible to meet.

The ministries of supply and agriculture later assured suppliers they would follow a 0.05 per cent tolerance policy, a widely applied international standard.

This pledge has now been called into question after renewed quarantine authority rejections — 30,000 tonnes of Polish wheat and 10,000 tonnes of Canadian wheat since April — despite their levels of ergot falling below 0.05 per cent, traders said.

“The ergot problem was sleeping. It has not been resolved and it remains a serious problem,” one European trader said.

The Polish wheat was imported by trading firm Venus while the Canadian grain was purchased by Five Star.

The Polish wheat, rejected twice since April, contained just 0.02 per cent of ergot, a company source told Reuters.

Eager to have their stalled wheat accepted, the company took out advertisements in three state newspapers last month pleading with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to intervene and resolve the ergot crisis, the source said.

As Egypt’s local wheat procurement comes to a close this month and as the country prepares to re-enter the international market, traders say the renewed rejections could make purchasing difficult.

Egypt’s state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), declined to comment on the two rejected shipments or on the zero ergot tolerance policy.

“The weather problems in France, in Europe and the Black Sea are favourable to ergot development. This could make supplying GASC very difficult next season,” another European trader said.

FAO report

Egypt’s agriculture ministry said it had received a crucial study on ergot conducted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) earlier in the year.

The report was commissioned to help standardize the country’s regulations and ease the conflict between rules governing the agricultural quarantine authority and the supply and agriculture ministries.

“The report is with the minister,” Eid Hawash, spokesman for the ministry told Reuters, ending weeks of speculation by traders on the fate of a study that was seen as potentially resolving the standoff over the country’s import policy.

Hawash stressed that the FAO report alone would not be the sole factor in determining any change in policy and said he was unaware of what recommendation the report contained.

GASC said it had no information on the contents of the report.

In the meantime, government sources said the zero tolerance policy would continue to be applied by the agriculture quarantine authority on both public and private sector shipments, signalling the standoff still existed.

Traders, many of whom have opted to sit out state tenders since the wheat rejections earlier this year, said that purchasing from abroad will likely get even more expensive for Egypt in coming months.

“The risk premium they were already paying a few months ago will be even higher,” one trader added.

— Reporting for Reuters by Maha El Dahan in Abu Dhabi and Eric Knecht in Cairo. Additional reporting for Reuters by Michael Hogan, Valerie Parent and Sybille de La Hamaide.

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