Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly has pledged to keep food prices affordable for Egyptians and other resident nationals despite the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The prime minister said that Russian-Ukrainian War has “negative repercussions and effects” on all countries including Egypt, citing worldwide waves of inflation as confirmed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
He noted that the Egyptian government is focusing on ways to absorb the most part of such inflationary waves and let the citizens face the least part.
He emphasized that the Egyptian government always strives to maintain reserves of essential commodities sufficient for three to six months.
The prime minister further explained that the government will closely and strictly monitor the local market to prevent hoarding or any kind of monopoly.
However, flour prices in Egypt had increased by 9 percent before the crisis and then went up by 17 percent after the crisis, it hiked by 48 percent on the global level, Madbouly said.
Although the price of cooking oil increased by 10 percent in Egypt, its global increase reached 32 percent, he added.
Egypt is the largest wheat importer in the world, with the biggest portion coming from Russia and Ukraine.
Egypt used to import about 12 million tonnes of wheat annually, but the number dropped significantly in 2021 to about 5.5 million tonnes after greater agricultural land reclamation and local wheat planting that supplied the country with 3.5 million tonnes last year, according to official data.
