CAIRO: Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) revealed in a report this week that there has been a decrease in grain production in Egypt to 22.66 million tons in 2009 compared to 23.63 million tons in 2008, a decline of 4.1 percent and lower rice production to 5.52 million tons in 2009 compared to 7.25 million tons in 2008, a decline of 23.9 percent. At the same time, the report said wheat production increased to 8.52 million tons in 2009 compared to 7.98 million tons in 2008, an increase of 6.8 percent. However, the agency noted to an increase in the average per capita of wheat procured, as it reached 136.6 kg in 2009, compared to 132.9 kilograms in 2008, recording an increase of 2.8 percent and 58.5 kg of rice in exchange for 46.0 kg in 2008, recording an increase of 27.2 percent. The statistics came during a statement issued by the agency on the occasion of World Food Day, which the world celebrated on October 16 and is the day corresponding to the establishment of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1945. The statement pointed to the increased production of red meat, reaching 960,700 tons in 2009 compared to 916,800 tons in 2008, an increase of 4.8 percent. “I am shocked by these statistics because Egypt does not raise cattle for meat production, so it is all imports that they are using,” Australia's Peter Barker, a food production expert with the World Food Program in the region, told Bikya Masr. There was a decrease in the production of poultry to 833,700 tons in 2009 compared to 879,200 tons in 2008, a decline of 5.2 percent and increase in fish production to 1.09 million tons in 2009 compared to 1.07 million tons in 2008, a rise of 1.9 percent. The statement also pointed to an increase in cultivated area to 8.78 million acres in 2009 compared to 8.43 million acres in 2008, recording an increase of 4.2 percent and an increase in the value of agricultural production from 185.67 billion pounds in 2008 compared to 155.95 billion pounds in 2007, an increase of 19.1 percent, despite what the ministries of environment and agriculture have said is the depletion of certain areas “due to factory farming and lack of waste clean-up.” The statement added that milk production reached 5.98 million tons in 2009 compared to 5.93 million tons in 2008, an increase of 0.8 percent, and vegetable production reached 23.3 million tons in 2009 compared to 21.64 million tons in 2008, an increase of 7.7 percent. BM
