The price of sugar in the Egyptian market rose from EGP 4,150 to EGP 4,500 per tonne last week, the general division of food products in the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (FEDCOC) reported. In response, the division released a statement on Saturday requesting that the Egyptian Sugar and Integrated Industries Company announce their sugar pricing policy to prevent market confusion. Head of the sugar division Ahmed Yehia said that the holding company did not announce the price increase or the reasoning behind it. "This will increase the sugar price for the customer from EGP 5 per pack to EGP 5.5," he said. In February, the Minister of Trade and Industry Tarek Qabil annulled the protection fees imposed by the ministry on white sugar imports in April 2015. The Ministry of Trade had imposed temporary protection fees of 20% on white sugar imports, with a minimum of EGP 700 per tonne, until it completed its studies on the leap in imports in 2014 and the first quarter of 2015. Qabil said the investigations found that it was not necessary to impose protection fees on white sugar imports and decided to refund all temporary fees paid by the importers during the period of investigations. The domestic production of sugar is estimated at about 2.4m tonnes and consumption is estimated at about 3.1m tonnes per year, with a supply gap of about 700,000 tonnes per year. Last year, the imports amounted to 1.5m tonnes.
