The minister assured that Egypt’s strategic reserves of wheat could sufficiently cover Egyptians’ needs for 4 and a half months
Wheat trading on the Egyptian Mercantile Exchange (EME) has been suspended, explained Minister of Supply and Internal Trade Ali Moselhi on Saturday, citing speculations on prices in the local market.
The minister assured that Egypt’s strategic reserves of wheat could sufficiently cover Egyptians’ needs for 4 and a half months.
In a separate statement, Abdul-Ghaffar El-Salamouni, deputy head of the Chamber of Grain Production at the Federation of Egyptian Industries, explained that the decision to pause wheat trading is to control the market and protect consumers, as some mills are overpricing flour products.
The deputy head refuted rumors that there is a shortage in the domestic wheat supply, noting that the Egyptian pound’s fluctuating exchange rate is one of the reasons behind the price speculation.
Concerns over wheat continue after Egypt, which relies on external sources of wheat for its subsidized bread, had inflows of the commodity cut due to the Russian/Ukrainian war. However, imports of wheat have stabilized over the past few months, increasing by over 14.5% to 11 million tons in 2023 compared to 9.6 million tons in 2022, according to the Ministry of Supply at the start of 2024.
Egyptian imports of Russian wheat have jumped by 39% year on year (YoY) in 2023 to 7.5 million tons, according to a recent report by media, citing undisclosed government documents.
