Egypt Aims to Improve Self-Sufficiency in Wheat and Corn Crops by 2025/2026

Egypt aims to procure 3.5 million tons of local wheat during the 2024 season, as announced by Ali Al-Moselhy, the country’s minister for Supply and Internal Trade. This initiative precedes the wheat harvest in Egypt, which typically commences in April and spans several months.

The government’s objective is to bolster self-sufficiency in wheat and corn crops. Minister of Planning, Hala Al-Saeed, stated that the goal is to raise wheat production to 53 percent from 45 percent in 2021 and corn production to 56 percent by 2025/2026.

Since November 2023, Egypt has planted three million feddans of wheat, representing a year-on-year increase of nearly half a million acres, according to the cabinet’s announcement in January 2024.

Assistant Supply Minister Ibrahim Ashmawy informed Bloomberg that Egypt’s wheat imports rose by 14.5 percent to 11 million tons in 2023 compared to 9.6 million tons in 2022.

A 2022 report by the United States Department of Agriculture shows how Egypt consistently imported around 12 million metric tons of wheat annually from 2017 to 2021.

As the third-largest economy in the Arab world, Egypt is often the world’s leading wheat importer, relying on foreign sources for over 50 percent of its wheat requirements. Its annual wheat consumption stands at 18 million tons, with the shortfall between imports and consumption met through local production.

In November, the Egyptian Cabinet raised the local wheat procurement price to EGP 1,600 (USD 33.7) per ardeb (150kg) from EGP 1,500 for the upcoming harvest season, aiming to incentivize farmers to sell to the state.