Egypt’s wheat imports forecast at 13 mln tons

Egypt is forecast to import 13 million tonnes of wheat in marketing year 2025-26, the same as 2024-25, driven by the availability of foreign currency allowing private companies to purchase larger volumes of milling wheat and an increase in wheat flour exports, according to a report from the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the US Department of Agriculture.

Wheat production in 2025-26 (July–June) is seen growing 1% year on year to 9.3 million tonnes. This is due to area harvested increasing to 1.43 million hectares compared to 1.4 million hectares the previous marketing year. The increase in area is supported by higher procurement prices that encourage farmers to sow additional areas with wheat, the FAS said.

Total wheat consumption in 2025-26 is expected to reach 20.4 million tonnes, which would be up nearly 1.5% from 2024-25 due to a 300,000-tonne increase in food, seed and industrial (FSI) consumption.

“The rise in FSI wheat consumption is primarily attributed to population growth,” the FAS said. “Egypt has a population of more than 107 million and is expected to reach 124 million by 2030, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS). In addition to the local population, Egypt is also host to an estimated 10 million migrants.”

The largest suppliers of milling wheat to Egypt during the past five marketing years were Russia (34.6 million tonnes), Ukraine (10.4 million) and EU-27 (9.64 million).

Estimated wheat flour exports in 2025-26 are 1.7 million tonnes, up 20% from the estimate for 2024-25. Egypt is a key supplier of wheat flour to many African and Middle Eastern countries and has significantly expanded its wheat flour exports to the region, especially in countries which saw conflicts and faced a halt of their production capacities, the FAS noted.

Egypt’s corn production in 2025-26 (October-September) is projected at 7.25 million tonnes, up 3.6% from the 2024-25 estimate of 7 million tonnes. The increase is due to an anticipated expansion in the area harvested, which is forecast to reach 950,000 hectares, up about 30,000 hectares year on year.

“Furthermore, the positive outlook for poultry feed consumption will continue to encourage many farmers to plant more corn during the summer of 2025,” the FAS noted. “Corn is a major raw material in livestock feed.”

Corn consumption for 2025-26 is forecast at 15.8 million tonnes, up from an estimated 15.6 million tonnes due to the growth in the poultry sector amid availability of foreign currencies and increase in feed supply, the FAS said. The poultry sector is the major driver of feed and corn consumption, and the poultry sector’s feed consumption is anticipated to grow by 2.3% in 2025-26.

To help meet domestic demand, Egypt is forecast to import 8.7 million tonnes of corn in 2025-26, up 200,000 tonnes from the previous year. Egypt sources yellow corn from international markets during the past five marketing years were Brazil (16 million tonnes), Ukraine (13.2 million) and Argentina (10.3 million).

Tags: wheat, crop forecast, Egypt