Urgent.. The Minister of Supply after Russia’s withdrawal from the grain agreement: an 8% price increase
Dr. Ali Al-Moselhi, Minister of Supply and Internal Trade, said that Egypt has been keen to multiply the origins of wheat imports during the recent period, including France, Germany, Romania, America and Bulgaria, which amount to about 23 origins, stressing that Egypt has experience in providing food commodities and wheat throughout the period of the Corona pandemic and also with the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Al-Moselhi commented on Russia’s withdrawal from the grain agreement, saying: “Russia’s withdrawal was not happy news, but we know that this conflict has been going on since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war,” and it will continue and we must take precautions, whether it is a real war or an economic conflict.
The Minister of Supply indicated that the sectors most affected by Russia’s withdrawal from the grain agreement will be transportation and logistics, and then a change will occur in transportation methods, saying: “Reassure the citizens, we have a stable stock of wheat.”
“Weak countries will be affected by price, especially in logistics, transportation, and securing transport operations. There are also many African countries that will be affected, but the impact of this will be limited to the price effect, and the impact will be in transportation and insurance for shipments, pointing to the high costs of transport with changing routes and the difficulty in the availability of transport lines,” he said.
He continued, “The Egyptian market will witness a price increase ranging from 5 to 8 percent.”
Al-Moselhy indicated during a press statement on the sidelines of the conference of the sixteenth session of the General Assembly of the African Organization for Metrology (AFRIMETS) that for Egypt we have 5.2 months of wheat reserves, and we do not deny that there is an impact on Egypt and African countries due to Russia’s withdrawal from the grain export agreement, especially since there are many countries that have difficulty in the arrival of wheat.
The Minister of Supply stressed that the Egyptian government will bear any price differences resulting from the import of wheat, and that this will not affect the citizen in anything, and agreements have been concluded with India to import wheat and sugar.
