Egypt’s president urges gov’t to study supply prices of crops for new season

CAIRO – 31 July 2022: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has urged the government to study supply prices of agricultural crops for the new season, said Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly on Sunday.

Madbouly made the remarks in a virtual meeting with Supply and Internal Trade Minister Ali Moselhi, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait, and Agriculture Minister El-Sayed El-Qusseir.

Sisi has ordered an expansion in agricultural contracts in a bid to encourage farmers to supply their crops to the government, Madbouly said.

A state vision should be outlined in the coming stage to better deal with strategic crops, the premier stressed.

The meeting focused on the need to have a defined mechanism to customize prices of crops, said Cabinet spokesman Nader Saad.

Work is underway to set indicative prices of some crops, Saad said, adding that Madbouli directed the ministers to act to quickly finalize the study and refer it to the Cabinet.

Earlier this month, Madbouli said Egypt has managed to collect 4 million tons of wheat from local farms, representing 80 percent of the targeted 5 to 5.5 million tons during this season.

He added in a press conference on 14 July that the government will announce a new program to encourage farmers to cultivate and supply wheat with better mechanisms.

The new program will focus on encourage young farmers to deliver wheat to the government, Madbouli said, noting that the majority of farmers tend to keep wheat for personal use or to provide it to the private sector.

The system applied during this wheat season has increased the price of wheat provided by farmers to the government to reach around LE 880 per ardeb on average after the additional incentives, Madbouli said.

Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, Egypt has focused on encouraging farmers to supply their wheat during the wheat supply season that has started in April.

Also, Egypt has worked on diversifying its wheat import sources as the country used to rely on Russia and Ukraine for around 80 percent of its imported wheat quantities, according to officials’ remarks.