Egypt benefits from increase of global wheat production: head of Farmers’ Syndicate

CAIRO – 21 March 2021: The expectation of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) about the possible increase in global wheat production for 2021 to 780 million tons comes in Egypt’s favor, said head of the Syndicate of Farmers Hussein Abdel Rahman Abu Saddam in a statement on Saturday.

 

The increase of global wheat production would lead to a decline in wheat prices globally and, thus, Egypt, the largest wheat importer in the world, will benefit from the declined prices, Abu Saddam clarified.

 

“Wheat prices rose by 6.8 percent in last January due to the increase in global demand and expectations of reducing Russia's wheat with doubling of customs duties on its exports of wheat,” he said.

 

Abu Saddam added that the government has estimated the price of a ton of wheat in the new budget at $ 199.5 per ton.

 

In a report issued on March 4, 2021, by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the organization said that “the record forecast reflects an anticipated rebound in production in the European Union that is expected to more than offset weather-impacted production prospects for output in the Russian Federation.”

 

Egypt’s wheat imports dipped to 12.685 million metric tons in FY2019/2020 compared to 13.3 million tons the year before declining by 615,000 tons, according to a report by the US’ Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS).

 

The country's wheat imports are projected to rise to 12.85 million tons of wheat in FY2020/2021, while wheat cultivated locally is estimated to record 8.9 million tons in FY2020-2021, up 1.5 percent from FY2019-2020.