Egypt government collects 4.2 million tons of wheat from local growers

Egyptian wheat growers have this year supplied the government with an unprecedented 4.2 million tons of wheat, amounting to half of Egypt’s wheat production this year.

Minister of Supply and Internal Trade Ali Moselhi said that the quantity of wheat sold by the farmers to the government this year reflected the growers’ positive response to the better price offered by the government this year for the wheat. Mr Moselhi thanked President Sisi for his constant support to the wheat growers, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Minister of Finance, provincial governors, the Authority for Food Safety,the Chamber for Grain Industry, the wheat growers and marketers, and all who were part of the wheat supply chain this year.

It is the first time that Egypt has collected more than four million tons of local wheat, said Chairman of the State-run General Company for Silos and Storage Kamal Hashim.

The local wheat supply has increased from 3.5 million tons in 2021 to 4.2 million tons this year, boosting the strategic wheat reserves to cover local consumption until January 2023 according to official statements. The increase, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, is a result of increasing the amount of land devoted to wheat cultivation by more than 400,000 feddans.

It also came because of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi’s directives to provide farmers with incentives to sell more of their crop to the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade.

Mr Moselhi had told the Senate last May that Egypt is doing its best to achieve greater self sufficiency in wheat production, aiming “to meet 65 per cent of domestic needs by 2024.”

The Supply Minister said that Egypt needs to import five million tons of wheat for the fiscal year 2022/23. The country had imported 5.5 million tons of wheat in 2021, he said, a huge drop from 12.8 million tons of wheat imported in 2020.

Egypt is working to diversify its wheat imports which had primarily come from Ukraine and Russia before the current war.

Tags: Egypt, Production, wheat, strategic reserves