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To import 5m tons of wheat in 2022-2023 is a necessity, Egypt government says

June 21, 2022 at 6:49 pm

Farmers harvest wheat to increase local wheat production in order to fill the wheat shortage in the country in Al Minufiyah, one of the important grain production centers of Egypt on May 14, 2022 [Mohamed Abdel Hamid/Anadolu Agency]

The Egyptian Minister of Supply, Ali Al-Moselhi, said today, Tuesday, that Egypt needs to import 5 million tons of wheat for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, Reuters reports.

According to the report, the Minister said Egypt added Portugal as a country of origin for wheat imports.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the State Silos Company, Kamal Hashem, said last Saturday that Egypt had received 4.1 million tons of local wheat since the beginning of the supply season, up to now.

He added that Egypt, for the first time, exceeded four million tons of local wheat, noting that the available quantities of wheat are sufficient until the end of 2022, according to Reuters.

Egypt, one of the world’s largest wheat importers, has become heavily dependent on Russian and Ukrainian wheat in the past few years.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February cast doubt on Egypt’s imports of wheat, some of which goes to subsidised government bread.

READ: Russia-flagged ships transport Ukraine grain to Syria