Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maait, revealed on Sunday that around $32 billion worth of goods have been released from various Egyptian ports and customs outlets in the past 5 months.

Maait added that the priority of release was for basic commodities, food manufacturing ingredients, medicines and production supplies, ensuring that Egyptian production would continue smoothly with it required needs, alleviating the burden on importers, and meeting local demand by providing all essential commodities in local markets.

The minister highlighted the efforts made to secure the state’s strategic inventory of basic commodities for citizens, helping to maintain the volume of quantities on offer in local markets which would lead to better conditions for prices to stabilize as much as possible. He also emphasized the unprecedented rise in global goods and services prices due to the Russia/Ukraine conflict which has led to supply chain disruptions.

Head of the Customs Authority Al-Shahat Ghattouri highlighted the efforts of those at the ports and customs outlets, noting that they have doubled working hours which has contributed to the facilitation of goods being released, signaling that customs officers are eager to complete the customs clearance procedures as soon as the documents are completed in cooperation with the dealers.