The Ministry of Trade announced that it will request an additional LE5 billion from the Ministry of Finance for the 2010-2011 budget. The extra funding will go to subsidies that will offset recent price increases in imported commodities. Hisham Ragab, assistant trade minister for legal and legislative affairs, stated that the recent jump in wheat and sugar prices, and the prospects of further increases, prompted the General Authority for Supply Commodities to reconsider the appropriations devoted to importing basic commodities. Ragab said that wheat prices, for example, are climbing. He noted that during the last bid organized by the authority, the price of the last batch of imports exceeded US$200 for the first time in a year. The authority declared that the last bid, which aimed to import 240,000 tons of wheat, resulted in buying 180,000 tons of Russian wheat at US$198 to 199 per ton and 60,000 tons from Germany at US$203. These quantities will be handed over in early February 2010. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
