Egypt is facing an unprecedented rise in prices amid a severe shortage of a number of food commodities, at a time when merchants are resorting to monopoly to increase profits.
As the holy month of Ramadan approaches, the crisis of sugar shortage has surfaced again, as its consumption is rising because it is an indispensable ingredient in the preparation of juices and sweets.
Member of the Foodstuffs Division of the Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, Ahmed Attabi, spoke about the crisis by saying: There is no sugar crisis in Egypt, but the real problem lies in the poor distribution from government companies to some merchants who are storing the goods to increase prices for citizens.
He added: The producing company and the distributing company are responsible for the crisis, explaining that sugar prices are currently witnessing an unreal rise and fictitious prices, but the real price is fixed at 27 pounds per kilo for the free market, and 13 pounds for the subsidized.
In turn, a member of the Egyptian House of Representatives, Maha Abdel Nasser, confirmed that she submitted two briefing requests to the Economic and Agriculture Committees last month, regarding the crisis of the sharp rise in the price of sugar, as it reached 55 pounds per kilogram (about a dollar and a half at the official price) before it was a rare commodity. Citizens stand in queues for hours, adding that there are very many goods that are completely absent in the markets, not just sugar.
The representative believes that the crisis is not, in fact, a crisis of scarcity of the commodity sugar, but rather a crisis of lack of oversight and negligence in the performance of officials in the Ministry of Supply in carrying out their duties and job duties in the correct manner.
Egypt is suffering from one of the worst economic crises in its history, after the annual inflation rate reached a record level, currently reaching 35.2 percent, driven by the decline in the value of the local currency and the shortage of foreign currency in light of the bulk of food being imported.
Egypt’s foreign debts have more than tripled in the last decade to reach $164.7 billion, according to official figures, including more than $42 billion due this year.
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