The Ministry of Finance allocated EGP 16bn to the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) to buy 4 million tonnes of local wheat at a price ranging between EGP 555 and EGP 775 per ardeb (5.62 US bushels), according to Minister of Supply and Internal Trading Aly Meselhi. In a related context, Meselhi said that there are 55.5 million ration cards with confirmed data, along with 6 million cards with unconfirmed data. He noted that the six million cards represent 19 million beneficiaries, pointing out that the ministry has filtered 301,000 cards since the initiative was launched earlier this month. He noted that Egypt cannot cultivate over 1.1 million feddans (1.142 million acres) of rice, due to the current water problems. In another context, he said that Egypt consumes 3.3 million tonnes of sugar, while it produces 2.2 million tonnes.

Source: Daily News Egypt March 25, 2017 15:11 UTC