CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said it was time to increase the price of the country’s subsidised bread, revisiting the issue for the first time since 1977 when then president Anwar Sadat reversed a price rise in the face of riots.
El-Sisi on Tuesday did not specify the amount of any potential increase, but any change to the food support system in the world’s largest wheat importer would be highly sensitive. Bread was the first word in the signature slogan chanted in the 2011 uprising that unseated former president Hosni Mubarak.
Bread is currently sold at 0.05 Egyptian pounds ($0.0032) per loaf to more than 60 million Egyptians, who are allocated five loaves a day under a sprawling subsidy program that also includes the likes of pasta and rice, and costs billions of dollars.
“It is time for the 5 piaster loaf to increase in price,” El-Sisi said at the opening of a food production plant. “Some might tell me leave this to the prime minister, to the supply minister to (raise the price); but no, I will do it in front of my country and my people.
“It’s incredible to sell 20 loaves for the price of a cigarette.”
Previous attempted changes to the subsidy program, which caused deadly bread riots in 1977, were agreed as part of former President Anwar Sadat’s loan deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
El-Sisi’s government has also turned to the IMF, which granted a $12 billion loan in 2016 and a one-year $5.2 billion loan last year, but specified that food subsidies should only reach those most in need.
The loan program also required higher fuel and electricity prices.
“I’m not saying we make it significantly more expensive, to as high as it costs to make it, 65 or 60 piastres, but (increasing the price) is necessary,” El-Sisi said.
“Nothing stays stagnant like this for 20 or 30 years, with people saying that this number can’t be touched.”
The Egyptian supply ministry will immediately begin studying raising the bread price and will present its findings to the cabinet as soon as possible following El-Sisi’s remarks, minister Ali Moselhy told local newspaper El-Watan.
El-Sisi has sought to rein in Egypt’s massive subsidy program by targeting those deemed to be sufficiently wealthy while leaving bread prices untouched.
Hussein Abu Saddam, head of the farmer’s syndicate, told Reuters: “The decision is right and comes at a very suitable time. It helps us finish with the old practices and customs, in which the president was always afraid of touching bread prices, fearing the outcry of the poor.”
A hashtag which translates as “except the loaf of bread” trended on Twitter in Egypt by Tuesday afternoon with more than 4,000 tweets.
Last year the country shrank the size of its subsidised loaf of bread by 20 grams, allowing bakers to make more fixed-price loaves from the standard 100kg sack of flour.
“I hope that this is not poorly received, as if we are planning to make a big jump in prices ... we are only talking about achieving balance,” El-Sisi added.
In its 2021/22 budget, Egypt allocated 87.8 billion Egyptian pounds ($5.6 billion) to subsidise supply commodities and support farmers.
Of that amount, 44.8 billion pounds are allocated toward the bread subsidy.
The government set a wheat price assumption of $255.00 per ton in fiscal year 2021/2022, from $193.90 a ton the previous year, according to the budget. Egypt last bought wheat on Monday for $293.74 a ton c&f.
Wheat prices globally have rallied over supply concerns during the coronavirus pandemic.
Egypt’s El-Sisi calls for first bread price rise in decades
https://arab.news/m5rvz
Egypt’s El-Sisi calls for first bread price rise in decades
- Al-Sisi on Tuesday did not specify the amount of any potential increase
- "It is time for the 5 piaster loaf to increase in price," al-Sisi said at the opening of a food production plant
Morocco to secure 60% of water needs from desalination
- Rabat boosts investment in facilities powered by renewable energy, minister tells Marrakech conference
MARRAKECH: Morocco, which has endured seven years of drought, plans to supply 60 percent of its drinking water from treated seawater by 2030, up from 25 percent, its water minister said, as Rabat accelerates investment in desalination plants powered by renewable energy.
The push is crucial to ensure a steady water supply and to maintain Morocco’s status as a key producer and exporter of fresh produce amid climate change, as droughts have dried up some of its main water reservoirs and depleted underground resources.
FASTFACT
The plant will have a capacity of 350 million cubic meters and will supply urban centers in Morocco’s food basket as well as farmlands.
The North African country plans to produce 1.7 billion cubic meters of desalinated water annually by 2030 from projects under construction and plants for which it will hold tenders starting next year, Nizar Baraka said on the sidelines of the World Water Congress in Marrakech.
The largest plant — with planned investment of about 10 billion dirhams ($1 billion) — will be located near Tiznit, 615 km south of the capital Rabat.
It will have a capacity of 350 million cubic meters and will supply urban centers in the country’s food basket as well as farmlands, he said.
“Studies are underway as part of preparations for the plant’s tender, to be announced by mid next year,” Baraka said.
Besides the northern cities of Nador and Tangier, plants are also planned in Rabat in partnership with the French group Veolia, as well as in Tantan, where the government is considering building a port dedicated to green hydrogen and ammonia exports, Baraka said.
Morocco currently operates 17 desalination plants producing 345 million cubic meters annually.
Four additional plants are under construction with a combined capacity of 540 million cubic meters, scheduled to be ready by 2027, including a major facility in Casablanca, the country’s most populous city.
“All new desalination plants will be powered by renewable energy,” Baraka said.
Morocco has also faced rising temperatures and worsening evaporation in dams.
To counter this, it installed floating solar panels on a dam near Tangier to reduce evaporation, which accounts for 30 percent of the country’s surface water loss, according to the minister.
“The experiment will be expanded to include dams in the south and mountainous regions,” Baraka said.
