CAIRO: Egyptian consumers are feeling the heat of increasing food prices, which vendors and retailers attribute to rising prices globally. Emad Ahmed, who runs a small grocery store with his brother in downtown Cairo, said his business is feeling the pressure of the economic slowdown Egypt has been experiencing since the 18-day uprising ousted president Hosni Mubarak. The Cairo Chamber of Commerce reported a rise in the prices of oil, canned fish, processed meat and several other food items by 8 to 11 percent from April to May 2011, according to a report by Egynews.net. Ahmed, who used to sell milk for LE 5.75 per kilo, has upped the price to LE 6.25 after a surge in wholesale prices. He was also forced to raised the price of canned tuna from LE 6.25 to 6.50, and since then “not many people are buying.” “Before the revolution, people bought more food,” he said. “People who would maybe buy half a kilo of cheese or luncheon meat now buy a quarter or even less; the same goes for things like sugar, rice, or oil.” While he may still be seeing the same wave of daily customers, their priorities have changed. “The same customers are still buying products because we can't go without food obviously, but sales have gone down,” he said. “I feel a strong depression in sales because people are now only buying their very basic needs like milk, butter, or rice.” Mirette Heozzi, senior analyst at CI Capital, said that sugar prices have increased to LE 4,400 per ton due to a recent strike by farmers as well as an increase in global prices. “Farmers refused to supply local producers with the crop until they officially increased the end-product of sugar from LE 280 to LE 350,” Heozzi said. “Right now, there is a deficit of sugar … in the Egyptian market and international prices are also very high.” According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), Egypt's annual inflation fell from 12.1 percent in April to 11.87 percent in May. However, the overall increase in prices from April 2011 to May 2011 was .2 percent, while the annual increase from April 2010 to May 2011 for food and beverages was 18.9 percent. Meat and poultry products saw a 12.5 percent since May 2010, fish and seafood rose 5.2 percent, bread and grain products increased by 32.8 percent, and fruits increased by 19.9 percent. In just one month, from April to May 2011, meat and poultry products increased by .4 percent, seafood increased by .8 percent, and oil and fat products saw a rise by 1.3 percent. Many distributors attributed the surge to the global rise in the cost of raw materials. “The price of rice increased from LE 4,000, to LE 4400 per ton, bringing the price per kilo from LE 4.5 to 5 of bulk rice and from LE 5 to 6 of filled,” Ahmed Yahya, head of the food sector at the Chamber of Commerce, was quoted in Al-Masry Al-Youm as saying. The report said that the Alexandria Company for Consumer Complexes increased the prices for goods such as poultry, meat, vegetable oil, pasta, and cheese between 10 and 15 percent. Yahya added that meat products like burger or luncheon increased from LE 42 per kilo to LE 45, while the price of tuna went from LE 5.5 to LE 6. He also said that the market is still in a “state of recession,” explaining that people have limited their purchases to necessary items.
