Egypt cultivates 3.8 million acres of wheat

CAIRO - 1 February 2019: On the eighth anniversary of January 25 Revolution, which raised “subsidized bread” as one of its main demands, the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture announced cultivating a total of 3.8 million acres of wheat, the main component of subsidized bread.

The cultivation of the above-mentioned area started from September 2018 to January 2019, added the ministry in a report issued on Thursday. The season of wheat cultivation in Egypt starts from September-October, to be harvested in April-May annually.

According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s annual brief on Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer, a total of 3.2 million acres were cultivated in 2018, “yielding 8.8 million tons.”

Egypt imports 11-12 million tons of wheat annually to meet the people’s demands of bread, the cheapest meal on the tables of 94.8 million people. On April 17, 2018, the Egyptian Ministry of Finance announced that it will import wheat for $198 per ton in the fiscal year of 2018/2019.

The government imported 12 million tons of wheat from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus via international tenders.

Additional reporting by Samar Samir