Egypt withdraws from UN grain treaty prompting sadness and concern

FILE PHOTO: A farmer tends wheat at a field in the El-Menoufia governorate, north of Cairo, Egypt, February 23, 2023. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt, one of the world's largest wheat importers, has given notice it will withdraw at the end of June from a decades-old U.N. grains treaty, causing consternation among some other signatories to the convention.

Egypt's departure from the multinational Grains Trade Convention (GTC), which promotes market transparency to further trade cooperation, follows a period of turmoil in grains markets linked to the war in Ukraine and concerns about global food security.