Egypt will receive two 60,000 metric ton Ukrainian wheat shipments early to avoid any possible delays in case the country introduces an export ban, the North African nation’s state grain buyer said.

The vessels are supposed to load the grain and set off from the export ports between Nov. 11 and Nov. 30, Nomani Nomani, vice chairman of the North African country’s state-run General Authority for Supply Commodities, said by phone in Cairo today. The ships will now leave earlier, he said, without providing further details.

Drought may cut harvests in Ukraine this year. The agriculture ministry there has not yet decided whether to ban wheat exports, a spokesman for Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said on Oct. 24.

“Ukraine has exported 3.8 million tons of wheat so far but all in all 5.4 million has been already contracted,” the ministry said on the same day. “Those contracts can be fulfilled.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Ola Galal in Cairo at ogalal@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net