Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on Monday reviewed efforts to develop the country's sugar industry, with a focus on boosting local production and reducing reliance on imports, his office said in a statement. Madbouly chaired a meeting in the city of New Alamein attended by the ministers of supply and agriculture, as well as officials from the Future of Egypt for Sustainable Development Authority and the state-run Holding Company for Food Industries. The meeting discussed the state's strategy for growing the sugar industry, especially with the increase in sugar beet cultivation in areas managed by the Future of Egypt authority. It also covered the development of various industries linked to sugar production and opportunities to maximise their benefits. The prime minister's spokesperson, Mohamed El-Homsany, said the meeting aimed to ensure a stable supply of sugar for the local market, particularly in light of global supply chain challenges. The officials also discussed efforts to implement environmental remediation plans in various sugar factories across Egypt to comply with environmental standards and achieve sustainability. The challenges facing these factories and plans for future modernisation and expansion were also on the agenda. During the meeting, Salah Fathy, the managing director of the state-owned Sugar and Integrated Industries Company (SIIC), presented his company's capabilities and its factories that produce sugar from both sugarcane and sugar beet. He noted that SIIC owns eight sugarcane factories in the governorates of Minya, Sohag, Qena, Luxor, and Aswan, in addition to an integrated industrial complex in Giza that refines sugar and is involved in chemicals, distillation, perfumes, food industries, and the manufacturing of paper and wood from sugarcane waste. Fathy reviewed the company's sugar production volume and the capacity of its factories to utilise by-products from sugarcane and beet, including molasses, fodder, bagasse, and animal feed. These by-products are used to produce ethanol, yeast, bio-fertilizers, food-grade carbon dioxide, natural vinegar, folic acid, organic solvents, and organic fertilizers, as well as energy, particle board, pulp, paper, and MDF wood. He also presented the company's vision for increasing the productivity of sugarcane per acre and reaching the maximum capacity of its factories to meet the state's sugar needs and increase the financial returns for farmers.
