The Finance Ministry has allocated more than 11LE billion for other government ministries to buy wheat from farmers this fiscal year, Deputy Finance Minister Mumtaz al-Saeed has said. Egypt's strategic reserves of wheat are enough to meet the needs of people for six months, Mumtaz told Al-Masry Al-Youm in an exclusive statement. He denied rumors that the Finance Ministry rejected offers from the Solidarity and Social Justice and Agriculture ministries to buy crops from farmers for LE380 per ardeb, a unit of land measure commonly used in Egypt. Mumtaz added that the government is prepared to buy the entire wheat harvest from farmers at prices between LE380 and LE400 per ardeb. Last year the Finance Ministry set domestic wheat prices at LE350 per ardeb, but the ministry this year is prioritizing the production of wheat and offering farmers high prices to encourage them despite the decline in international wheat prices, Mumtaz continued. The finance minister offered the price of LE380 an ardeb and the cabinet is discussing the offer to determine a final price, said Noamany Nasr Noamany, deputy head of the General Authority for Supply Commodities. Noamany said the international wheat price is currently LE255 per ardeb. Translated from the Arabic Edition
