Last week, the Egyptian market experienced an 8 to 11 percent increase in the price of foodstuffs such as rice, oil, canned fish and processed meat, said Ahmed Yehia, head of the food division at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce. Companies dealing in foodstuffs said the increase was related to global price hikes. A contributing factor was increased production costs, which made it imperative to raise the price of some products, according to Suresh Narayan, the head of an international company. Yehia said the per ton price of rice increased from LE4000 to LE4400, bringing the price per kilo from LE4.5 to LE5 for wholesale rice, and from LE5 to LE6 for packaged rice. Yehia told Al-Masry Al-Youm that companies have begun to reduce the size of cooking oil bottles from 1 liter to 900 ml for sale at same price, while other companies have increased their prices from LE9.5 to LE10. Yehia noted that price increases have also affected packaged meat such as burgers and luncheon meat, with the per kilo price of luncheon meat increasing from LE42 to 45, and one can of tuna from LE5.5 to LE6. "The market is still suffering a recession with a 40 percent decrease in sales," said Yehia. On Saturday, the government-owned Alexandria Company announced a 10 to 15 percent price increase in pasta, poultry, meat, oil, milk and cheese. Meanwhile, food company officials said domestic companies were facing increased prices for raw materials, forcing them to increase their prices. Translated from the Arabic Edition
