Egypt has harvested more than 700,000 feddans of wheat this season -official

(Corrects amount to more than 700,000 feddans in headline and para 1, corrects name of minister and adds name of official)

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has harvested more than 700,000 feddans of local wheat since the start of this harvest season on April 1, an Agriculture Ministry official told Reuters on Saturday.

Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said last month that the country has made 1.1 billion Egyptian pounds ($59.69 million) available for a down-payment to state grains buyer GASC and the Agricultural Bank of Egypt to purchase wheat from local farmers.

Egypt, among the world's biggest wheat importers, is heavily reliant on shipments from Ukraine and Russia and its government has been seeking alternative supplies from countries including India and France.

The Agriculture Ministry official Abbas al-Shennawi added that Egypt targets the planting of 1.075 million feddans of rice in 2022-2023, which would achieve self-sufficiency.

($1 = 18.4300 Egyptian pounds)

(Reporting by Moemen Saeed Attallah; Writing by Yasmin Hussein; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)