Wheat growers watch Egyptian protests

Revolutionary protests in Egypt have Northwest wheat growers tuned in to North Africa.

“We’re definitely keeping an eye over there,” said Tom Mick, CEO of the Washington Grain Alliance. “We have no game plan in place because we don’t know what’s going to happen, but whatever happens is going to have an impact on us.”

Egypt is by far the world’s leading importer of wheat. Mick said the U.S. is expected to export at least 9.8 to 10 million metric tons of wheat - including one million metric tons of soft white wheat - to Egypt this year.

“And we were anticipating it would be much higher by the en...