The Egyptian government will decide within days the fate of 8 goods that are officially banned from exporting, as the decision of the Egyptian Ministry of Commerce and Industry, issued on March 13th, to ban the export of pasta, wheat, lentils, flour, oils, corn, beans and frick expires on June 12.
The precautionary decision taken by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in the wake of the Russian-Ukrainian war was aimed at maintaining reserves of strategic goods, especially with the high prices of grain and oil due to the conflict between the two countries, which account for 80 percent of Egypt's wheat supply, and 30 percent for the rest of the world.
Egyptian sources and executives expressed optimism to Sky News Arabia that the Egyptian Ministry of Commerce and Industry did not extend the decision for an additional three months, revealing that negotiations with the ministry to exclude semolina flour and pasta "Spaghetti" from the ban, but a ministry official said that the order is subject to study in cooperation with the Ministry of Supply, and that the final decision will be presented to the Cabinet before its adoption.
Tamim al-Dawi, deputy executive director of the Export Council for Egyptian Food Industries, revealed the success of the council's efforts to remove semolina flour from the list of goods banned from export, days after the exclusion of pasta "Spaghetti" from the list as well, pointing out that the latter represents 90 percent of Egypt's exports of pasta.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture report estimated Egypt's wheat need in fiscal year 2022-2023 at about 11 million tons imported, the lowest level of wheat import bill in nine seasons, supported by increased cultivated area and local wheat production.
"Negotiations are under way to convince the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to exclude vegetable oils from the list of goods banned from export, especially with the high amount of inventory in the Egyptian market," al-Dawi told Sky News Arabia.
"The ban was primarily a precautionary measure by the government," said the official at the Egyptian Export Council. The circumstances surrounding it when it was released last March changed, including that it took into account the month of Ramadan and the needs of citizens during it, and crude exporters also started exporting their products recently."
"Exports are an important sector of the economy, with food industry exports accounting for 14 percent of total non-oil exports, totalling $4.1 billion last year," al-Dawi said.
"The surplus in the Egyptian market is very good," he said. There is nothing to extend the embargo," he said, adding that the order was being studied by the Ministries of Commerce and Supply.
Abdul Ghaffar al-Salamoni, vice president of the Grain Industry Chamber of the Egyptian Federation of Industries, said the state banned wheat trading until the end of August by a decision of Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli to prioritize the local market's strategic needs, among other measures to build sufficient stock for market consumption.
Salamoni added in an interview with Sky News Arabia, that the extension of the decision to ban the export of the eight goods or not "is subject to several considerations, the most important of which is to secure domestic demand, and to take into account the fluctuations in the global prices of these strategic goods, which saw a significant rise after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war," noting that "the extension of the embargo with some exceptions is possible within days."
Due to the war, inflation in Egypt reached an unprecedented level in three years, with its overall annual rate in April rising to 14.9 percent from 12.1 percent in March, the highest level since November 2018, according to an earlier statement from the Egyptian Statistics Service.