Maait to FT: Egypt had enough wheat to last until end of year

LONDON - 24 May 2022: Finance Minister Mohamed Maait has warned that “millions” could die globally because of the food price crisis triggered by the Ukraine war, echoing warnings made by the UN and G7 countries as worries about a worldwide wheat shortage intensify.

 

In an interview with the Financial Times during a visit to London, Mohamed Maait warned of “food insecurity” around the world. However, he insisted Egypt had enough wheat to last until the end of the year.

 

“This is something that we have to be very careful about,” said Maait. “We will feel shame if we find that millions of people are dying because of food insecurity. They are not responsible for that, they didn’t do anything wrong.”

 

Maait also told the FT he was confident Egypt would not fall into recession this year. “The issue of going to recession, I’m ruling [it] out,” he said. “Egypt was one of the few countries able to grow positively over the two years of Covid-19.”

 

The government is predicting 5.5 per cent growth in the fiscal year that starts in July.

 

The minister was optimistic that a new three-year funding package, requested by Cairo in March, would be agreed with the IMF. Discussions with the fund were “going very well”, he said. No figure had yet been suggested by the government or by the IMF, he added.

 

Maait said the government was still planning to “rationalize” bread subsidies, which cost more than $3bn annually — a prospect raised before the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict but which has been delayed.

 

“So as long as the cost of bread and the cost of producing bread increases, so the cost of subsidy on the budget increases . . . It cannot go like that,” he said. Altering bread subsidies was “not an imminent action”, but “the intention to move is there . . . over a gradual basis”. 

 

Maait said Cairo also planned to reform the cash credits received by millions of Egyptians for food, streamlining the list of those eligible to ensure only the needy received them.

 

Egypt is hosting the UN COP27 climate summit this year and Maait said the country would be issuing new national climate targets, and a new green funding plan, in the coming weeks.