Egypt has reserves of wheat enough for 4.1 months: Supply min.

CAIRO – 21 May 2022: Supply Minister Ali El-Moselhi said Egypt currently has strategic reserves of 750,000 tons of vegetable oil and reserves of wheat that are enough to cover the local needs for 4.1 months.

Moselhi made the statements at the inauguration of 'Future Project for Agricultural Production' at Dabaa-Rod El-Farag road on Saturday, which comprises more than a million feddans.

Moselhi said Russia-Ukraine crisis led to an unprecedented rise in price of commodities globally and a huge wave of inflation.

Food security is based on three axes, Moselhi said, which are providing basic commodities, ensuring access of citizens to these commodities, and controlling their prices.

The 'Future Project for Agricultural Production’ is part of the New Delta agricultural project which is implemented over an area of 2.2 million feddans with the aim of securing strategic and other crops.

Egypt's 'Future Project for Agricultural Production' comprises more than a million feddans, which represents around 50 percent of the New Delta agricultural project, Bahaa El-Ghannam, the director of the project said during the ceremony.

The first phase of the project has been implemented over the past four years and comprises 350,000 feddans, Ghannam said.

He noted that 700,000 feddans will be already reclaimed within the project during this year.

The project will comprise 350,000 feddans cultivated by wheat by 2024, which will produce 1 million tons of the strategic crop.

Egypt's imports of wheat, corn and soybeans stood at $8 billion in 2021, Ghannam said.

During the ceremony, President Sisi urged intensifying efforts within the framework of the project to be fully implemented by 2023.

During the inauguration ceremony, Sisi the national agricultural projects being implemented at a "very high" cost seek to provide job opportunities, including in the neediest governorates of Beni Suef and Minya, besides securing agricultural crops.

“I am in a challenge to meet my people and nation’s needs,” Sisi said, adding: “It is a pledge that I adhere to and seek to fulfill.”

He added that people could not have endured the lack of electricity, road networks, and good food production over the past years if all state resources had been allocated for education, despite it being undoubtedly a very important issue.

Sisi urged establishing mega markets in Cairo and Giza to control prices of commodities.

The president urged charity organizations to support farmers by providing them with high-quality livestock to double their income and boost production.

Sisi also spoke about Toshka agricultural project, which seeks to help Egypt achieve self-sufficiency of wheat, saying the project was not halted in the past due to poor choice or planning, but rather inability of implementation.

Sisi said the Egyptian army did not only fight terrorism, but also backwardness, regression, and state's incapacity along with investors and businessmen side by side.

Responding to critics of state's sequence of national priorities and infrastructure projects, Sisi affirmed the need that people understand the projects within a scientific and good planning context.

“Please, do not sit with your legs crossed and speak about topics that you are not well-informed of,” the president said.