The strategic reserves of basic commodities are enough to last until next April, Minister of Supply Khaled Hanafy said on the sidelines of the Egypt International Logistics Forum on Sunday.
Hanafy added that the logistics system to manage strategic commodities adopted by the country has helped in securing the levels of strategic commodities as it improved methods of storage.
Egypt’s foreign reserves, which stood at $16.415bn in October, were said to barely cover basic commodity imports for Egypt for about three months.
Egypt adopted in October 2014 a global logistics centre project in Damietta for the handling and storage of grain and food commodities.
The project would increase the capacity of annual marine trading of grains and food commodities in Damietta port from the current 7m-8m tonnes to 40m tonnes. Of this, 12m tonnes will be re-exported locally, according to Hanafy. The total amount of trade expected from the project’s multimedia transportation systems is approximately 65m tonnes per year.
The project’s establishment will take two years, with the government hoping it will bring major economic benefits to the country, with the potential to create thousands of job opportunities in Egypt.
