In TV statements to MBC Misr TV channel’s El-Hakeya and its host Amr Adeeb, Moselhi revealed that the government will start selling the 90 gram loaves of subsidised bread to citizens not enrolled in the ration card system using a prepaid debit card.

He said that citizens will be able to buy 10 or 20 loaves of subsidised bread for a price that has not been decided yet, but added “it will be less than the price of unsubsidised bread.”

According to Moselhi, the price will be determined monthly.

He revealed that the ministry will start a trial phase for the prepaid cards system in two or three bakeries on Wednesday.

The supply minister stated that the total cost of subsidised bread increased from EGP 51 billion to EGP 90 billion due to the increase in the US dollar price.

“The price of one ton of wheat increased from $230 to $480 and now one US dollar costs EGP 29.5,” he said.

Egypt relies heavily on wheat for making bread, a main staple of the Egyptian diet, with citizens consuming almost 100 billion loaves of bread annually, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said in August.

The 104 million-person country has been suffering from a wheat shortage since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis. Eighty percent of Egypt's imported wheat comes came Russia and Ukraine prior to the conflict.

The government has since been looking to buy wheat from other countries in order to diversify Egypt’s wheat import sources.