Domestic need for sugar covered by local production, imports

CAIRO – 16 September 2017: Chairman of Delta Sugar Co, Abdel Hamid Salama, said on Saturday that the quantities of sugar produced by the public sector and those imported would fulfill the domestic need for sugar in the coming period.

Salama added that the company possesses 150,000 tons of white sugar, in addition to the raw sugar that is being refined.

He said that the contracted sugar quantities are now being received by public sector companies for refinement, saying that the sugar will be sold on the market at a fixed price of LE 9.5 per kilo.

Egypt imported 350,000 tons of sugar, out of 850,000 contracted to be supplied until October, Minister of Supply Ali Moselhy said in August.

Sugar refining season starts in July and ends in October, while sugar production season begins in January.

In March, Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail decided to exempt raw sugar imports from customs tariffs from January 1 to December 31 of this year.

A month later, Egypt’s Trade and Industry Ministry decided to impose a sugar export tariff worth LE 3,000 ($169.2) per ton.

Egypt produces around 2.4 million tons of sugar annually, while annual consumption averages 3.1 million tons. The gap is filled by private and public imports.