The total value of all sugar traded on the Egyptian Mercantile Exchange (EME) has recorded 4.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($145.6 million), said EME chairman Ibrahim Ashmawi on Tuesday. Speaking during a press conference in Cairo to showcase EME's results for the year ended December 31, 2023, Ashmawi further said the total volume of sugar traded on the EME has amounted to 183,000 tons throughout 891 transactions. Egypt started offering sugar in the EME on August 17, 2023. 209 companies have so far registered on the exchange in Cairo, he added. The exchange, which began trading in November 2022, has wheat, sugar, and yellow corn among its list of traded commodities, and plans to add cotton, rice, propylene, gold, aluminum, and much more in the coming period. It is designed to operate as a spot market with prices determined by supply and demand, operating on a closed bidding system, where bidders submit offers in a sealed envelope and the country's state grains buyer GASC selects the best one.