Egypt seeks to increase strategic wheat reserve capacity to 5 million tons: Supply min. tells Sisi

Egypt seeks to increase strategic wheat reserves capacity to 5 million tons: Supply min. tells Sisi

CAIRO – 21 April 2022: Egypt's Supply Minister Ali Moselhi said Egypt seeks to increase strategic wheat reserves capacity to five million tons as he spoke during a ceremony held in the presence pf President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to start the harvest season in Upper Egypt’s Toshka project.

The country seeks to increase strategic wheat reserves capacity by building 60 field silos with a total capacity of 600,000 tons, building new silos in Toshka, Sharq El-Owainat, Dabaa, Qena and Farafra, and raising storage capacity of some existing silos, said the minister on Thursday.

Egypt has been able to build resilience to external shocks during the inflation the resulted from the pandemic as well as the Ukrainian-Russian crisis thanks to relevant measures in this regard, Moselhi said.

Despite the international shocks, Egypt has strategic wheat reserves that can last until January next year, he added.

Egypt has so far 2.6 million tons of imported wheat and targets to collect 5.5-6 million tons of local wheat and therefore strategic wheat reserves can last for 6-9 months, the minister affirmed.

Thanks to the project of establishing wheat silos since 2014, storage capacity has increased to 3.4 million tons of wheat from 1.2 million tons in 2014, Moselhi said.

The project to establish wheat silos has saved annual wheat loss estimated at at least 10 percent of the production, representing about $6.5 billion, which is almost the same value as the project so far, according to the minister.

Egypt also has strategic reserves of rice for 6 months, of sugar for over 6 months, of cooking oil for 5.4 months, of Sudanese live meat for 16.4 months, and of frozen chicken for 7.3 months, he said.

Sisi made an inspection tour in Toshka agricultural lands in the South Valley of Upper Egypt’s Aswan early today to witnesses the start of the wheat harvest season.

Sisi then gave the green light for the opening of some wheat silos via video in several governorates and watched a documentary on Egypt’s achievements to secure the wheat needed for local consumption.

Egypt has cultivated 217,700 feddans of agricultural lands as part of the project that produce around 550,000 tons of wheat annually, according to the documentary.

Egypt has also established seven new wheat silos with a total storage capacity of 420,000 tons in Arab Al-Olaikat area in Qalyubia, Bani Salamah in Giza, New Salhia city in Sharqia, and Abu Suwir in Ismailia as well as in the areas of San El-Hagar, El-Hammam, and Kharga.