The price of a ton of wheat in the Egyptian market increased by about 1,000 pounds, ranging from 6,000 to 6,500 pounds, while a ton of pasta rose to 10,000 pounds, compared to 7,500 and 8,000 pounds before the crisis.
Attia Hammad, head of the Bakeries Division in the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, attributes the reasons for this increase, especially bread, to “the stockpiling of some merchants and importers of tourist flour, to be used during the coming period with the increase in prices for consumers.”
And Hammad continued, in his interview with “Sky News Arabia”: “All quantities of tourist flour that entered Egypt for contractors and traders, and the way they are distributed, must be reviewed. “.
And the head of the Bakeries Division at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce added: “In Egypt, we have about 28,000 subsidized bakeries and nearly 8,000 bakeries that produce tourist bread, which is a free commodity subject to the policy of supply and demand, and its prices change according to the region and cost.”
Parliament intervenes
The Secretary of the Planning and Budget Committee in the House of Representatives, Representative Abdel Moneim Imam, submitted a request for a parliamentary briefing due to the large rises in commodities, calling for identifying the reasons for “the laxity of the agencies affiliated with the Ministries of Supply and Trade and Industry in controlling the monopoly of traders in commodities.”
In his request submitted to the council, Imam stressed: “The recent wave of high prices must be followed up, and the market prices of strategic food commodities must be monitored, after the developments of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, in addition to the fact that there are a number of bakery owners manipulating official weights, and they raised the price by a variable rate between 50 and 100 per cent. percent in some cases, according to the area of sale and the degree of control over it.
Scarcity of material offered
At the same time, Abdel Fattah Mostafa, a member of the Food Division at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, says that “the prices of the majority of commodities in Egypt have been moved due to the state of supply and demand in the market, and the scarcity of items offered during the recent period.”
And Mustafa continued, in his interview with “Sky News Arabia”: “We import 100 percent of edible oils from Ukraine, except for locally manufactured palm oil, and we import wheat from Russia, and there is currently a war between the two countries, and this has an impact on the movement of prices worldwide. gather.”
He stressed: “The merchant is currently buying at high prices, to also sell to the consumer at a high price, especially with the cessation of the import movement. The merchant is not the hanger on which the high prices will be suspended, but the one who monopolizes goods must be punished, for what he is doing from thirst for the local market and contributing to at higher prices.”
Russian-Ukrainian control of wheat
According to a number of official figures, Russia and Ukraine control about 29 percent of the world’s wheat trade.
A member of the Food Division at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce pointed out that “after a few weeks, the month of Ramadan will begin, and it is also a season for merchants, and during those days, there is a demand for food purchases, so that those days, with the global crisis, are elements of pressure on the Egyptian market.”
Mustafa added, “The government is providing food as much as possible on ration cards. For example, oil was priced at EGP 17 per liter, then it rose to EGP 21, and now at EGP 25, so that its price on ration cards moved to EGP 8 in less than 90 days.”