CAIRO - The prices of foodstuffs have risen globally in the past few months and Egypt certainly hasn't been spared. In fact, the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has warned that prices will probably rise yet again in Egypt. The FAO blames the problem on more crops being used as biofuel, the political crises in North Africa and the Japanese rice crop being seriously damaged by the tsunami. Other reasons include the fact that the price of a barrel of oil has risen to $120, while Russia is mulling banning the export of seeds, which will lead to an increase in the prices of seeds, oil, sugar and dairy products. Hamdi Abdel-Azeem, an economics expert and former Chairman of the Sadat Academy, is very worried about this, adding that the global demand for foodstuffs keeps growing, while the quantity of foodstuffs keeps shrinking. Egypt has achieved self-sufficiency in some commodities, while the huge price rises here are quite unjustified, despite the global rises. Abdel-Azeem blames this on a monopoly of greedy traders, while there aren't any laws to control them. Meanwhile, Yomna el-Hamaki, the head of the Economics Department in the Faculty of Commerce, Ain Shams University, says that the State does in fact subsidise certain foodstuffs and foods, especially bread. She would like the Ministry of Agriculture to pay the fellaheen more for the wheat they grow. This would encourage more self-sufficiency and help break one of the monopolies. Ahmed Yehia, the head of the Foodstuffs Section in the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, blames the high prices here on the fact that prices have risen globally, while the US dollar is getting stronger again against the Egyptian pound, making imports more expensive. The deputy head of the same section, Amr Asfour, says that another contributing factor is a shrinking rice crop, while Egypt has been sending large quantities of rice to the people suffering in Libya. He also complains that a lot of rice gets smuggled across the Sudanese borders, adding that greedy traders charge ordinary citizens too much. According to head of the Agricultural Crops Section Al-Pasha Idris, prices of cereals are globally stable. At the same time, he stresses that Egypt must increase its local production of cereals. Professor of Economy at Al-Azhar University Salah Eddin Fahmi told Al-Musawer magazine that Egyptians spent a lot on foodstuffs compared with other countries, according to a recent report from the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS). The report said that Egyptians spent 70 per cent of their income on food between October 2010 and March 2011, 15 per cent on clothes and the rest on other necessities. “The recent revolution is also to blame, because imports and exports have fallen and the Stock Exchange and banks were closed for a long time,” Fahmi added, predicting that foodstuffs will get more expensive within the coming three months. “High prices will urge people to rationalise consumption and use alternatives. Instead of animal proteins they will resort to cereals.”
