UAE-based Al Ghurair Group will invest in a $1-billion sugar production project set to fill 80% of the consumption gap, Egypt's Investment Minister Sahar Nasr said during a press conference on Monday. The project consists of the cultivation of 181,000 feddans in Egypt's Minya governorate, mainly of sugarcane, in addition to a sugar production factory, cabinet spokesperson Ashraf Sultan told Egypt's DMC TV channel on Monday. Egypt's ministry of investment and international cooperation and ministry of agriculture on Monday jointly signed an agreement with Canal Sugar Company, a subsidiary of Al Ghurair Group, to establish the project. Canal Sugar Company will have a 33% stake in the project, with the rest to be available to local investors, according to Bloomberg. The project is expected to offer 200,000 direct and non-direct job opportunities, according to Agriculture Minister Abdel-Moneim El-Banna. Egypt consumes around 3 million tonnes of sugar every year. Local production provides 2.2 million tonnes, leaving an 800,000-tonne consumption gap, El-Banna told Ten TV. The signing comes one day after the Supply Ministry increased the price it pays to farmers for sugarcane to EGP 720 per tonne from EGP 700, effective beginning of the month. The price increase will not increase sugar prices, which are set at EGP 9.5 per kilogram, Supply Ministry spokesperson Mahmoud Ramadan said on Egypt's ON Live TV channel on Monday.
