
File Photo: Egyptian farmer in a wheat field. Ahram Gate.
This follows the ministry's recent procurement of 770,000 tons of wheat from Bulgaria and Russia, the minister said in statements to the country’s official news agency MENA.
Egypt’s total consumption of wheat amounts to 18 million tons yearly, with almost half of this amount going to making subsidized bread for around 70 million people.
To bake a staggering 93.5 billion bread loaves this year, the country needs 7.7 million tons of wheat, according to an earlier cabinet report.
In May, Egypt raised the price of subsidized bread loaf to 20 piastres, up from 5 piastres, marking the first increase in the cost of the staple in three decades.
The country used to rely heavily on the Black Sea for over 80 percent of its wheat imports, but the Russia-Ukraine war and dollar shortages have forced a change of plans.
The government has sweetened the deal for farmers, increasing the wheat buying price by a quarter to boost local production amid the recent developments.
Farmers started handing over their wheat in April, to collect 3.5 million tons this season.
High rates of reserves
Minister Farouk added that the subsidized sugar reserve is enough for 19.3 months and oil for 5.6 months.
Furthermore, he asserted that Egypt's reserve of strategic and supply goods, especially wheat, has reached its highest rates in the last period.
Farouk highlighted that boosting the strategic reserve of basic goods comes under the directives of the political leadership and Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly.
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