In a press conference on Wednesday, the Cabinet also affirmed that the tourists who visit Egypt are diverse, which makes the country capable of coping with the reduced flow of tourists from Russia and Ukraine, who are the two biggest exporters of tourism to Egypt.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine that started two weeks ago has caused a surge in the prices of commodities and petroleum products worldwide.
Egypt has enough wheat reserves to last till the end of 2022, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said during the press conference, adding that the state aims to spare citizens the cost of the current global inflation by absorbing its ramifications as much as possible.
Egypt's current strategic wheat reserves are sufficient to cover the coming four months and it is expected – via its the local wheat supply season that starts in mid-April – to augment its total stock to cover five more months.
Egypt, one of the world’s top wheat importers, receives around 80 percent of its wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine. In recent days, Egypt has been setting its eyes on 14 alternative markets – including non-European countries like the US, Argentina, Canada and Paraguay – to meet its grain needs.
On Tuesday, Ukraine, which accounts for 12 percent of the world's total wheat exports, announced that it would not be exporting commodities including wheat, corn, grains, salt, and meat.
A Ukrainian cabinet statement said the step is meant to fulfill the needs of the population and prevent a humanitarian crisis in the country.
Madbouly noted that the government will provide the market with all necessary goods, and warned merchants against stockpiling.
The PM called for periodical oversight to prevent any attempts at price gouging, and warned that the government will not allow such practices since the country has already managed to secure a strategic reserve of various types of basic commodities.
Madbouly stressed that the state takes into account the social dimensions when dealing with such issues, as opposed to other nations where consumers always bear the cost of increasing prices.
Over the past several days, Egypt has witnessed an increase in the prices of a number of commodities, especially meat and poultry.
Madbouly said there has been an "unprecedented" increase in the price of all strategic goods internationally over the past two weeks on the heels of the Russia-Ukraine war and the spike in shipping charges, noting that all countries have been negatively affected.
The war has cost the world's economies around $400 billion over the past two weeks, he added.
Globally, the price of wheat has increased by 48 percent, cooking oil by 32 percent, corn by 30 percent, sugar by 7 percent, frozen meat by 11 percent, poultry by 10 percent and petroleum by 55 percent, Madbouly said.
However, the prices of wheat and cooking oil in Egypt have increased by only 17 percent and 10 percent respectively, he added, stressing that the country is witnessing a lower level of increase compared to other countries.
Only the prices of meat and poultry products in Egypt have exceeded the global rates, Madbouly said, noting that the government is working to resolve the matter.
Ukraine accounts for around 30 percent of sunflower oil exports worldwide, Egypt’s Minister of Supply and Internal Trade Ali Moselhi said during the press conference, noting that the price of the alternative soybean oil also increased in the wake of the crisis.
The state is bearing the largest percentage of the rise in prices of basic commodities, Moselhi said, adding that the state bears 100 percent of increases in wheat prices when it comes to subsidised bread.
Egypt has said it plans to raise the price of subisdised bread, but will make sure this does not heavily impact needy and marginalised groups.
While prices of oil have doubled worldwide since the pandemic, oil prices have only increased slightly in Egypt, Moselhi said.
Madbouly added that Egypt has formed a crisis committee to handle the impacts of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, similar to that formed when the coronavirus pandemic hit the country in 2020.
The PM also said that he has issued directives to government officials to contain the impacts of inflation as much as possible so that citizens only bear a "simple portion" of the increases.
The premier underscored that Egypt's strategy, to deal with such crisis, is always having reserves of basic good that suffice for 3-6 months.
Speaking during the presser, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said the state budget is capable of dealing with the financial impacts of the Ukraine crisis and managing them wisely in the same way it tackled the coronavirus pandemic.
The state has increased budget reserves in the fiscal year 2021-2022 from a proposed sum of EGP 100-110 billion to EGP 170 billion, Maait said.
Wheat reserves
Madbouly has also stressed that the country will not be needing to buy any wheat from abroad until the end of 2022, due to sufficient local reserves of the strategic commodity.
Egypt's current strategic wheat reserves are sufficient to cover the coming four months, and is expected – via its the local wheat supply season that starts in mid-April – to augment its total stock to cover five more months, approximately until next November.
Minister Maait said the global increase in the prices of wheat, a key strategic commodity that secures the staple food of bread for tens of millions of Egyptians, may cost the state around EGP 15 billion, but available reserves will cover these costs.
Minister of Agriculture El-Sayed El-Qusseir said that Egypt’s farmland cultivated with wheat has reached 3.6 million feddans after increasing by over 400,000 feddans over the past year.
“This is a result of the horizonal agricultural expansion projects the state has funded to achieve food security for the people of Egypt,” El-Qusseir said.
The state plans to increase cultivated areas by 3.5 million feddans during the coming three years, El-Qusseir said, with a large percentage to be allotted for strategic crops.
The agriculture minister said the state seeks to achieve wheat production of 5.5 million tonnes during the coming season. In 2021, Egyptian farmers supplied 3.5 million tones of wheat.
Egypt, one of the world’s top wheat importers, gets around 80 percent of its wheat imports from the world's top wheat suppliers Russia and Ukraine. In recent days, the country has been setting its eyes on 14 alternative markets – including non-European countries like the US, Argentina, Canada and Paraguay – to meet its grain needs.
Madbouly noted that the government will provide the markets with all goods, warning merchants against stockpiling.
The PM called for periodical oversight to prevent any attempts at price gouging, and warned that the government will not allow such practices since the country has already managed to secure a strategic reserve of various types of basic commodities.
Tourism challenges, recovery
Egypt bore the cost of the extended stay in Egyptian resorts of about 17,000 tourists who could not return to their countries due to restrictions on air traffic in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, Minister of Tourism Khaled El-Enani said during the conference.
The private sector bore the cost of the tourists’ stay during the first week of the crisis and the government paid for their stay starting 2 March, El-Enani said.
The state is also bearing the cost of tourists’ return to their countries, he added.
“Not a single tourist who could not return to his country put his hand in his pocket,” El-Enani said.
This week, Egypt announced it was sending several Air Cairo flights carrying Ukrainian tourists to European countries neighbouring Ukraine.
Until Saturday, 4,000 Ukrainian tourists had left Egypt for European countries, Egyptian Cabinet’s spokesman Nader Saad said.
The planes transferring tourists will also repatriate the Egyptian nationals who crossed Ukrainian borders to neighbouring countries.
So far, Egypt has repatriated hundreds of nationals from Ukraine via Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Hungary, as the majority of the Egyptian community in Ukraine has already fled to these countries.
On tourism recovery, the minister said the number of tourist nights spent in Egypt during the last quarter of 2021 was close to the number of tourist nights in the same period of 2019.
In February, the Egyptian government vowed to work on diversifying tourism sources by working to attract more tourists from other countries.
According to earlier figures by the Ministry of Planning, Egypt’s hotel and restaurant sector has achieved 181.8 percent growth in the first quarter of this fiscal year, indicating that the negative effects of the coronavirus on the sector were wearing off.
Egypt has made many decisions to support the sector since the outbreak of the pandemic, including an announcement by the Ministry of Health in July to allow fully vaccinated passengers to enter the country without conducting coronavirus PCR tests.
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