The government must provide necessary commodities at reasonable prices, especially in Egypt’s neediest areas, through the development of an integrated strategy to expand into more mobile and fixed food outlets to meet the citizen’s needs, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said during his meeting Saturday with the .
Ismail assured the importance of intensifying efforts to meet the sustainable development requirements of the neediest areas, especially in the Upper Egypt governorates, noting that the government is eager to provide everything necessary to improve the quality of services provided to them.
Although earlier this month President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said that there would be no increase in prices, this promise does not align with what is happening on local markets, which have witnessed a dramatic increase in the prices of fruits and vegetables, as well as beef and poultry.
However, Ismail instructed Upper Egypt governors to immediately provide lands required to establish more fixed outlets in Upper Egypt, in addition to increasing the Gameity project outlets to more than the 500 outlets currently available.
Moreover, Ismail directed the activation of contract farming to meet the local market’s needs for staple crops and the expansion of the cultivation of corn, stressing the irreversibility of the decision to halt rice exports adopted by the cabinet.
The prime minister stressed the importance of maintaining the supply of goods to all outlets and Ministry of Supply grocery stores, and also to maintain that basic goods that are discharged to citizens for bread points, emphasising the need to tighten controls on the markets in order to adjust the prices.
The committee reviewed a comprehensive report on commodity stocks to confirm their availability for long periods of time, and discussed preparations for Eid Al-Adha and increasing the quantities of fresh and frozen meat available through fixed and mobile outlets.
