Russia threatened to ban Egyptian citrus imports on Tuesday, a move that could escalate a trade dispute over exports of Russian wheat to the world's largest importer of the grain. Zero tolerance on ergot could halt Russian wheat exports to Egypt at a time when the country has its largest wheat crop in post-Soviet history. Egypt bought 6 million tonnes of Russian wheat in the 2015-16 marketing year, which ended on June 30, a quarter of Moscow's total wheat exports for the period. Russia bought around $150 million of Egyptian citrus products in 2015, about 13 percent of its total citrus imports from across the world. One Egyptian fruit trader told Reuters he had not heard of any Russian complaints about Egyptian citrus.

Source: Egypt Independent September 13, 2016 15:56 UTC