Producers and merchants agreed to decrease the commercial prices of sugar in the Egyptian market as of Saturday, from 10.5 Egyptian pounds to 10 pounds per kilogramme, said Egypt's Minister of Supply and Internal Trade Ali Moselhi in a statement reported by state news agency MENA. Moselhi said that sugar's wholesale prices would be also decreased for the commercial sector from 9,250 pounds per tonne to only 9,000 pounds. Prices for the industrial sector will be reduced from 1,050 pounds per tonne to 9,250 pounds, he said. Moselhi said that the decrease would affect other manufactured food products, stressing that government procedures aimed at increasing the market supply are having a positive effect on prices and inflation. Egypt has been facing a shortage in sugar supplies since September, amid a foreign currency crisis that has crippled imports. Subsidised sugar is currently distributed through ration cards and sold at a price of 8 poundsper kilogramme. According to supply ministry figures, 71 million people use government ration cards to buy essential food goods at subsidised prices. Egypt consumes more than three million tonnes of sugar a year. Source: Ahram online
