Egyptian grain buyers, squeezed by droughts in Russia and Australia, bought 165,000 tons of wheat this month from a far-flung source, the Pacific Northwest.
The sellers included Cargill Inc. and Louis Dreyfus Commodities, two of the multinational goliaths involved in contract talks with longshore union leaders as a potential lockout looms at grain terminals in Portland, Vancouver and the Puget Sound.
The purchase, for shipment in January, provides further evidence that the owners of the six Northwest export terminals plan to keep grain moving with replacement workers if necessary. Yet another extension of contract negotiations adjourned Wednesday as federal mediators said both sides needed more time to review options.
But Shawn Campbell, assistant director of U.S. Wheat Associates’ West Coast office in Portland, says uncertainties caused by the talks are already trimming sales quantities of the Northwest’s trademark soft white wheat.