CAIRO: The People’s Assembly (PA) referred the bread and wheat crisis to the economic committee to prepare a report on the solution to the crisis and put it up to a vote, the result of which will be binding to the government, said PA Speaker Saad El-Katatny.
The Minister of Supply and Domestic Trade Gouda Abdel Khaleq had spoken before parliament to respond to 41 interpellations regarding the bread crisis and shortage and price hike of fertilizers, which a number of MPs described as a matter of “national security”.
The assembly concluded that the solutions proposed by Abdel Khaleq were insufficient to end the multiple facets of the crisis which includes the import of carcinogenic wheat unfit for human consumption and separating wheat production from distribution, said El-Katatny.
Abdel Khaleq, who described the bread issue as “the axis of stability in the country,” said that the cancerous wheat and unfair distribution were holdovers from “a regime which has not yet fallen.”
He suggested the launch of a mass production initiative, dubbed the “million loaf bakeries”.
“We already opened one last October in Shiekh Zayed and we are building one in Shubra El Kheima,” said Abdel Khaleq, adding that two were opened last week in the Upper Egyptian provinces of Luxor and Qena.
He also suggested as part of the solution to encourage small bakeries to merge with larger ones.
In order to support local farmers, the minister said that the government bought the homegrown wheat supply at a price 19 percent mark-up on the global wheat price.
Abdel Khaleq asked the assembly to hold him accountable from February 2011 when he was named the minister of social solidarity.
“Reform takes time … corruption was not only at the top but went down to the roots,” he said, adding that he needs the cooperation of the PA to end the crisis.
“Those who think that I have the cane of Moses are delusional … we are working in extremely difficult conditions,” said the minister.
