Egypt plans to harvest 10 mln tons of wheat amid rising yields and land development efforts

Egypt plans to harvest 10 million tonnes of wheat this year, up from 9 million in 2023, driven by higher yields and ambitious land reclamation efforts, Agriculture Minister Alaa Farouk told Reuters on Wednesday evening.

A total of 3.1175 million feddans (about 1.30 million hectares) have been cultivated this season, he said, slightly below the 3.5 million feddans previously announced by the planning ministry and 3.2 million feddans in 2024 (1.34 million hectares), suggesting a possible reduction in the overall wheat planting area.

Farmers told Reuters that wheat had become less profitable compared with crops such as beets, whose planting area has increased from 500,000 feddans (210,000 hectares) to 700,000 feddans (294,000 hectares) this year.

The government plans to purchase 4-5 million tons of local wheat and import about 6 million tons to provide subsidized bread to more than 69 million Egyptians.

Farouk said new high-yielding wheat varieties developed by the Agricultural Research Center have increased yields by 7-8.5%.

“This is vertical expansion, but horizontal expansion is coming,” he said.

The horizontal expansion is being led by the military-affiliated Mostakbal Misr for Sustainable Development, which plans to reclaim 4 million feddans across the country.

Farouk said some of this land is already ready for cultivation, and the rest will be ready for cultivation in the next two years, opening up great opportunities for investment in agriculture.

Mostakbal Misr, which was recently tasked with importing wheat, is also developing infrastructure and growing crops aimed at local consumption, exports, and agricultural processing, Farouk said.

Farouk declined to comment on revenue streams from his operations, referring the matter to the finance ministry.

Reuters was unable to immediately reach the finance minister for comment.

Farouk added that the government was looking into a potential price hike for local fertilizers. Urea and nitrate fertilizers cost about 9,500 Egyptian pounds ($185) to produce per tonne, but are sold at a subsidized 4,500 ($87.63). Export prices reach 20,000 pounds ($389.48), Farouk said.

Fertilizer producers, who are required to sell 55 percent of their output at a discount in exchange for subsidized natural gas, are pushing for higher prices.

Egypt is also overhauling its inefficient commodity exchange to allow direct trading of crops, which will require changes to regulations that Farouk said should be completed this year.

1 dollar = 51.35 Egyptian pounds

1 feddan = 0.42 hectares

Tags: crop forecast, Egypt, wheat