The Egyptian Minister of Agriculture, Mr. El-Qusair, said that Cairo has attached great importance for many years to the cultivation of wheat, as it is an important strategic crop.

Al-Qusair added that Egypt is currently implementing plans to expand wheat cultivation and add new areas for wheat cultivation, whether in the new delta or in places like Toshka.
The Egyptian Minister of Agriculture said that about 3.6 million feddans of the strategic wheat crop have been planted this year, and it is expected to collect a large amount of wheat from local farmers to meet Egypt’s needs in the coming months.

He stressed that the Egyptian government is currently focusing on growing local wheat in more areas to achieve food security for Egyptians.

Al-Qusayr indicated that the area of ​​wheat increased from 3.1 million federal dinars in 2018/19 to about 3.6 million federal dinars today.

Due to the escalating crisis in Russia and Ukraine and the looming war between the two countries, the Egyptian government tends to expand the cultivation of local wheat, which is a major supplier of the world’s wheat crop.

Wheat reserves in Egypt

When talking about the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis on the import of wheat from the two countries to Egypt, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly expressed his hope that the Russian-Ukrainian crisis will end smoothly and not turn into violence.

Madbouly said that Egypt’s strategic stock of wheat is currently sufficient for a period of four and a half months, and that the quantity provided by local farmers during this period will keep the stock sufficient until the end of the year.

In a media statement on Wednesday in his capacity as chair of the government meeting, the prime minister added that the government is expected to raise more money from farmers this year than last year after raising the prices of wheat supplies. Government.
He stressed that the government monitors the conditions of wheat stocks on a daily basis and is working on a mechanism to hedge against the rise in international prices and to avoid the impact of global fluctuations.

In response, the Egyptian Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Mr. Al-Qusayr, said that the productivity of cultivating one acre of wheat in Egypt is about 3 tons, meaning that 3.6 million acres will provide Egypt with about 10 million tons. From high quality local wheat.

The Egyptian government aims to collect nearly four million tons of wheat this year, an increase of about 11 percent over last year’s collection.

Narrowing the gap between domestic and imported

An official government source said that the fictitious government still relies on imports to bridge the gap between its domestic production of wheat and the imported one, especially since local wheat production currently represents about 55.5 percent of domestic demand.

Sources said that about 6 million tons of wheat have not been supplied to the government and are traded in the local market, which is enough to meet the needs of Egyptians.

He added that the government plans to buy 4 million tons of GDP from farmers, with few exports due to non-competitive prices compared to Russian and Ukrainian wheat.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, the area of ​​wheat in Egypt increased slightly in 2019/2020 to 3.171 million feddans in 2019/2020 compared to 3.135 million feddans in 2018. / 2019 before rising to nearly 3.3 million feddans last year.
Egypt’s annual consumption of wheat is currently estimated at about 18 million tons, and the local production this year is about 10 million feddans, and the rest of the Egyptian demand will be imported from abroad next year.