(AFP Photo)
Cabinet spokesman Hossam Qawesh stated that the government is committed purchasing one ardeb of wheat [equal to roughly 150kg] for EGP 420 for the coming season, amid efforts to reduce dependence on imports in the light of weak dollar reserves.
In a cabinet statement on Sunday, Qawesh said: “We are trying to reduce the food gap for strategic crops. The government will purchase wheat from farmers at a rate of EGP420, even if this amount is higher than global prices, in order to support Egyptian farmers.”
Agriculture Minister Adel El-Beltagy said that Egypt aims to expand wheat cultivation areas to cover 3.5m acres, representing a 200,000 acre increase on last year.
On Saturday Minister of Supply and Internal Trade Khaled Hanafy said last week that Egypt is the world’s largest wheat importer and that Egypt aims to reduce wheat imports in 2015 to between 4-4.5 million tonnes, provided that bread subsidy reforms lead to reduced consumption and waste.
He said in a statement that “Strategic reserves of wheat allocated for subsidised bread production…is enough to last through the first week of March of 2015. That is after the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) affiliated with the ministry will buy 175,000 tonnes of French and Russian wheat.”
Hanafy said that Egypt imported 5.46m tonnes of wheat during the 2013-2014 fiscal year in addition to purchasing 3.7m tonnes of local wheat.
