(Refiles to add dropped word 'buys' in headline)
By Michael Hirtzer
CHICAGO, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Egypt bought 30,000 tonnes of U.S. hard red spring wheat last week, the first purchase of that variety since 2010, U.S. Department of Agriculture data showed on Friday.
The sale comes as the wheat-buying program for Egypt, the world's top importer, has roiled futures markets. Chicago Board of Trade futures Wc1 of $4.62 per bushel are hovering near 5-1/2 year lows reached last week amid record global supplies.
Egypt has rejected cargoes of wheat from France and Canada due to the presence of the fungus ergot, and the country's buying agency General Authority for Supply Commodities has canceled several wheat tenders in recent weeks.
Egypt's GASC at midday announced that it purchased 240,000 tonnes of wheat from France and Russia. sale of U.S. spring wheat represented the first sizeable purchase of wheat from the United States during the marketing year that started on June 1, 2015, with Egypt last summer buying roughly 8,000 tonnes of U.S. soft red winter wheat.
The U.S. spring wheat likely would be used to blend with other wheat to produce flour that is subsidized for citizens to make bread, traders and analysts said.
"It is a surprise," Futures International analyst Terry Reilly said of the U.S. sale. "But it's such a small amount that, in the larger scheme of things, it doesn't really impact the balance sheet."
U.S. wheat exports to Egypt and to all global destinations are forecast as the lowest in decades due to cheaper grain on offer in Argentina, France and in the Black Sea region.