Customers are preparing for a possible shortage of their favorite items as the Ministry of Trade and Industry announced the temporary suspension of all imports of over 800 companies/brands due to failure to comply with the government’s factory registration requirements.

Published on the General Organization for Export and Import Control’s (GOEIC) website, a document listed over 800 companies as suspended from importing their products into Egypt, including major brands such as Nestle Water, Almarai, Mobaco Cottons, Unilever, and Macro Pharmaceuticals.

Unilever alone imports around 400 of its brands into Egypt, this includes Vaseline, Signal, Sunsilk Persil, Dove, and Axe. The company quickly sent out a statement, pointing out inaccuracies in the news shared; including listed Lipton Tea, which Unilever explained is fully manufactured within Egypt and is not imported.

The suspension enforces the industry’s decision to facilitate import registration procedures, with companies now required to renew documents within 30 days of its expirations. Announced in early April, the amendments also include the requirement for exporters to be added to the official trade registry within 15 days of submitting the required documents.

Accordingly, companies that fail to meet the requirements by the deadline are removed from the list of approved exporting companies and have a 60-day window to appeal. GOEIC previously warned that some companies had until May 20 to fix issues with their registration status.

Reassuring citizens after social media went ablaze with comments on the list, Hazem El-Menoufy, a member of the General Division of Foodstuffs in the General Federation of Chambers of Commerce, said that the decision to stop importing Almarai Company’s products, Lipton products and others, will not affect the Egyptian market because all of these products are manufactured in Egypt, and those imported from abroad do not constitute 5% of the Egyptian market.