EGYPT – In a bid to support local production, the Egyptian government has increased its wheat storage capacity to 3.6 million tons in 2023, compared to 1.2 million tons in 2014, an increase of 200 percent according to a published state report.
According to Eficon Agency, the increase follows the establishment of 35 new silos for storing wheat bringing the total number of such infrastructures available in the country to 75 built between 2014 and 2023.
The report revealed that these investments were made within the framework of the national silo plan, adding that up to 60 field silos with a capacity of 10,000 tons, each are under still construction.
This announcement comes as the authorities seek to acquire nearly 4 million tonnes of wheat from local producers for the year 2023.
Additionally, the latest USDA forecast noted that the wheat harvest in Egypt is expected to increase by around 9% to close to 10 million tonnes at the end of the 2023/2024 season.
In line with President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s interest in expanding the cultivation of strategic crops, the report reviewed the most prominent horizontal expansion projects to increase the agricultural area.
At the forefront of these projects is the Toshka al-Khair project, which witnessed the cultivation of 150,000 feddans of wheat, in addition to the Sharq al-Owainat, project, which includes the cultivation of 146,000 feddans of wheat.
These projects also include the New Delta project, where the area of wheat cultivated in the Mostakbal Misr project, which is the first of the New Delta project, is 70,000 feddans,
In addition is the Farafra project, with an area of 4,500 feddans of cultivated land for wheat, in addition to the Ain Dallah project, with an area of 4,000 feddans for cultivated wheat.
To support this ambition, recently, the Egyptian Ministry of Finance allocated 45 billion EGP (US$ 1.5B) to purchase local wheat from farmers this year, a step forward in supporting and encouraging farmers to expand the cultivation of strategic crops, particularly wheat.
The report added that seven strategic warehouses are being implemented to increase the commodity stock and bring it to between eight to nine months instead of four to six months.
In addition, the report revealed that up to 105 earthen barns have been converted to developed hangars with a total storage capacity of 211,500 tons.
Earlier this month, the Agricultural Bank of Egypt (ABE) announced that it received the first batch of locally produced wheat in 2023, amounting to about 277,000 tonnes with a total value of about EGP 2.8bn.
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