Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi made an inspection tour of Toshka agricultural lands in the South Valley of Upper Egypt’s Aswan early on Thursday to witness the start of the wheat harvest season.
Sisi then gave the green light for the opening of some wheat silos via video in several governorates and watched a documentary on Egypt’s achievements to secure the wheat needed for local consumption.
Over the recent years, Egypt has cultivated 217,700 feddans of agricultural lands in different areas that produce around 550,000 tons of wheat annually, according to the documentary.Egypt has also established seven new wheat silos with a total storage capacity of 420,000 tons in the Arab Al-Olaikat area in Qalyubia, Bani Salamah in Giza, New Salhia city in Sharqia, and Abu Suwir in Ismailia as well as in the areas of San El-Hagar, El-Hammam, and Kharga.
During the inauguration ceremony, Egypt’s Supply Minister Ali Moselhi said Egypt has been able to build resilience to external shocks during the inflation that resulted from the pandemic as well as the Ukrainian-Russian crisis thanks to relevant measures in this regard.Despite the international shocks, Egypt has strategic wheat reserves that can last until January next year, he said.
Egypt has so far 2.6 million tons of imported wheat and targets to collect 5.5-6 million tons of local wheat and therefore strategic wheat reserves can last for 6-9 months, the Minister affirmed.Thanks to the project of establishing wheat silos since 2014, storage capacity has increased to 3.4 million tons of wheat from 1.2 million tons in 2014, Moselhi said.
The project to establish wheat silos has saved annual wheat loss estimated at at least 10 percent of the production, representing about $6.5 billion, which is almost the same value as the project so far, according to the minister.Egypt seeks to increase strategic wheat reserves capacity to five million tons by building 60 field silos with a total capacity of 600,000 tons, building new silos in Toshka, Sharq El-Owainat, Dabaa, Qena and Farafra, and raising the storage capacity of some existing silos, according to the minister.
Egypt also has strategic reserves of rice for 6 months, sugar for over 6 months, cooking oil for 5.4 months, Sudanese live meat for 16.4 months, and frozen chicken for 7.3 months, he said.Toshka, the wheat supply
Egypt targets to collect 5.5 million tons of local wheat during the supply season, which started in April, depending on the agricultural projects implemented over the past years.
This comes especially amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis, which has affected the wheat supply globally, especially as the two warring countries are the largest wheat exporters worldwide.
Egypt depended over the past years on Russia and Ukraine for about 80 percent of its wheat imports, according to officials.
As a result, the country has taken steps to encourage farmers to supply local wheat to the government, including increasing the purchase price per ardeb of wheat and allocating incentives for farmers.
In TV remarks over the past weeks, Moselhi indicated directed an increase in the number of wheat collection points, easing procedures in addition to facilitating small farmers. He also directed setting special rules for small spaces.
He added that the area of cultivated lands this year amounted to 3.6 million feddans, producing between 9 and 10 million tons of wheat.
The minister pointed out that the current year witnessed an increase in the cultivated areas in the Toshka area by about 250,000 feddans, with expectations to increase to 500,000 feddans during the next year, reaching 1 million feddans in 2025. This will save about $1 billion from the wheat import bill.
Moselhi stressed that the national project for silos was able to preserve the wheat well, ranging from 12 to 18 months.
The minister pointed out that the wheat purchase bill amounts to about LE 40 billion annually, of which about LE 18 billion is for local wheat, and between LE 20 and 22 billion is the import bill for wheat.
