Miller Magazine Issue: 141 September 2021

96 Country Profile MILLER / september 2021 piasters ($0.0032) per loaf. However, it is expected that the government will change the procedure it follows for bread subsidy because of the great cost of the cur- rent program, according to Egyptian Grain Industry the amount of subsidized flour that is used for the Baladi bread reaches 8-9 million tons annually. In line with the remarks of the current Egyptian minister, he intends to increase price of subsidized bread, and reduce the gap between subsidized and free bread prices and also the gap between subsidized bread market price and the cost that the government endures, which is 65 Egyptian piasters. IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON GRAIN MARKET Grain prices globally are still considerably high, the impact of Covid-19 was big on the grain market, prices now are higher than its usual compared to the same time last year, the pandemic caused strong price fluc- tuations and increases because of regulatory restric- tions and shipping limitations. So, in our opinion, this step of reducing subsidy is understandable due to the increase in wheat prices, Egypt last bought wheat on Monday 30.08.2021 for $338.10 a tonne c&f Romanian origin for shipment in 15-20 October. Furthermore, reducing bread subsidy will cause in- creased demand on the unsubsidized bread, that is produced using the private sector’s flour, which will open new opportunities for private flour mills in Egypt and for investments in the Egyptian milling industry, which makes it one of the most promising markets in this field. Since the beginning of 2021 until end of July, Egypt’s both public and private sectors have imported about 5 million tons of wheat. Imported wheat was from different origins, mainly Russia (58.38%of wheat imports), followed by Ukraine, Romania, Australia and France. Egypt’s state grains buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodi- ties (GASC) bought one million and 859 thousand tons of wheat (37.03% of imports). Al-Hazaa Group mills in Egypt import its wheat from USA, Canada, Australia and Russia, the Group has strong relationships with important wheat suppliers such as Cargil, Dreyfus, IDM and others.