Supply min. opens renovation works at state-owned sugar factories

CAIRO – 4 February 2018: Supply Minister Ali Moselhy inaugurated Sunday renovation works of the packing department as well as developing turbines and centrifuges at the state-owned Egyptian Sugar and Integrated Industries Company, with investment cost of LE 400 million, a statement from the Supply Ministry said.

This came during the minister’s visit to the sugar companies affiliated with the company in Abu Qurqas in Minya governorate.

The visit comes in light of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s directions to revive the sugar industry and develop public sector’s factories, according to the statement.

Moselhy said that in light of the president’s directions to give due concern to sugar cane farmers, the price of sugarcane purchased from local farmers was hiked last month from LE 620 per ton to LE 720 per ton. Dues of farmers should be paid without delays, the minister said.

On January 21, President Sisi issued a decree to hike the price of sugarcane purchased from local farmers from LE 620 per ton to LE 720 per ton.

The decision came following a request by farmers to raise the price since the cost of growing sugarcane has surged due to the high prices of fertilizers and other production inputs.

Moselhy added that Egypt has sufficient sugar reserves to meet local demand until May, in addition to the targeted local production of one million tons.

He also shed light on the need to reduce production expenses and upgrade production lines without changing the final selling price of sugar, which now stands at 9.5 pounds per kilo.

CEO of the Egyptian Sugar and Integrated Industries Co, Alaa Fahmy, said that a total of 2.12 million tons of sugar cane have been purchased from farmers since the beginning of the supply season.

Founded in 1868, the Egyptian Sugar and Integrated Industries Co (Siicegypt) engages in the engineering equipment fabrication and erection of sugar, food, and chemical projects.

The company owns and operates more than 20 plants for production of sugar and other related products. It operates as a subsidiary of Food Industries Holding Company.

Egypt’s sugar factories have been supplied with around one million tons of sugarcane since the beginning of the harvest in the first week of January, according to the Ministry of Supply.

It is expected that the sugar companies will receive 10 million tons of sugarcane, enough to produce 1.1 million tons of sugar by the end of the season.

The total area planted with sugarcane in Egypt is 325,000 feddans, the majority of which is in Upper Egypt.

Egypt produces about 1.3 million tons of sugar from sugar beet each year and consumes about three million tons a year. It meets its production gap with a mix of private and public sector imports.