In This Article:
* Egypt typically the world's biggest wheat importer
* Most purchases came from Russia and Ukraine
* Local farmers have to sell 60% of crop to the state
* Government offer is well below international prices
By Sarah El Safty
BANHA, Egypt May 27 (Reuters) - At an agricultural storage complex in the Egyptian city of Banha, Ahmed Nasser watches truck after truck offload freshly-threshed grain from the surrounding Nile Delta.
Cut off from much of the Black Sea wheat it depended on by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Egypt, often the world's biggest importer, is straining to extract whatever it can from a local harvest now in full flow.
The government, which provides steeply-subsidised bread to more than 70 million of Egypt's estimated 103 million people, has set an ambitious target to buy six million tonnes of domestic wheat this year, two-thirds more than in either of the previous two years.
Silo workers like Nasser are putting in extra hours. "We're supposed to leave at 4 pm. But this year especially, we sometimes work until midnight," he said, as dust from the offloading chamber beneath towering silos filled the air.
After a slow start, farmers and officials say the harvest is going well, but both the farmers and the government are still under an unusual amount of pressure.
Egypt's food subsidy programme requires around nine million tonnes of wheat per year. Last year the government imported 4.7 million tonnes, much of it from Russia and Ukraine, and it has purchased about 1.9 million tonnes of foreign wheat for shipment in 2022 so far. Some 300,000 tonnes are stranded in Ukraine, with future prices and supplies uncertain.
As it seeks to shore up wheat reserves, the government says farmers must supply at least 60% of their crop to the state, up from the 40% it bought last year. It is imposing fines and even jail on those who don't comply.
The rules are meant to prevent farmers from holding back more of their crop for animal feed, and traders from selling the wheat on the open market.
The government has also raised its procurement price by 22% from last year, to $311.23-$318.40 per tonne, though that is still well below international prices and some farmers say it is not enough given rising input and labour costs.
THIRD-PARTY TRADING
In Banha, north of Cairo, 59-year-old farmer Ahmed Samir says he planted less wheat on his typically sized three-feddan (acre) farm this year because of the high price of labour and other inputs.
He plans to sell about two-thirds of his wheat to the government, keeping the rest for household consumption.