He said in an exclusive interview Saturday that GASC had altered its wheat buying strategy by removing purchasing power from the hands of one negotiator and placing it with a committee.Abdelrazek said GASC altered its strategy in April after former GASC vice president Samir El-Shakankiri disagreed with Supply and Home Trade Minister Hassan Khidre on how Egypt should by its wheat and resigned.

"When we make a tender, sellers provide us (the committee) with their prices and we study them to get the best possible prices," said Abdelrazek, a Supply and Home Trade Ministry employee since 1966."Then we compare the prices on the bourse and see if the prices are right. We see if we are getting the lowest price of wheat possible."He said for 13 years the bulk of Egypt's wheat imports were bought by El-Shakankiri, who personally negotiated with sellers after giving them a price he wanted to buy at. This worked out in favor of the seller, Abdelrazek said.

"It's like walking into a shop where the prices aren't on the goods," he said. "We don't negotiate anymore."He said sellers had taken time to accustom themselves to the new system, but the result was cheaper prices.Abdelrazek said the committee had placed a series of conditions on wheat sellers after El-Shakankiri was accused of buying inedible wheat."Our conditions to sellers are that they must fumigate all wheat and produce certificates saying that the containers they use are rust-free," he said.

Abdelrazek also said GASC and the Supply and Home Trade Ministry is reviewing the possibility of dramatically increasing its wheat stockpiles, which would be accommodated by 50 new silos. They plan to build the silos through an international tender.He said GASC is unlikely to buy more than 5.5 million metric tons of wheat in the marketing year ending June 30, 2001, because of its efforts to rely more on local grown wheat.

"We are trying to fix a balance between using the wheat we grow and the wheat we buy from abroad," he said.