Egypt buys 466,266 tons of wheat from local farmers, document shows

Egypt, often the world’s top wheat importer, has bought 466,266 metric tons of wheat from local farmers since the procurement season officially started in mid-April, an official document showed on Monday.

That is a fall of more than 37% from purchases made in the same period of last year.

Despite a decrease in wheat-cultivated areas this season, the government believes it can buy 4 million to 5 million tons of wheat from local farmers, having raised the procurement price by 10%, leaving it to import about 6 million tons to provide heavily subsidised bread for more than 69 million Egyptians.

The government typically purchases 3.5 million tons from local farmers.

Farmers have told that wheat has become less profitable than crops like beet, the area of which increased from 500,000 feddans to 700,000 feddans ((210,000-294,000 hectares) this year.

Tags: Bread, wheat, procurement, Egypt, price