Global grain companies looked past anti-government protests that toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Friday to sell Cairo a large quantity of wheat without raising prices to include any risk premium.
The sale underscored Egypt’s position as the world’s top wheat importer, and more importantly, its reliability on payments even at the height of political tension after three weeks of protest to end the 30-year rule of Mubarak.
In a vote of confidence that grain trading would continue unfettered, 12 different grain companies offered to sell wheat to the General Authority for Supply Commodities, including Louis Dreyfus, Cargill, Bunge and Glencore.