CAIRO - Egypt's General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) has bought 83,000 tonnes of rice to bridge the gap in supply, an official told local media on Wednesday. "The price of rice ranges between LE3,475 ($583) and LE3,799 per tonne and shipments will delivered on May 10-30," said Nomani Nomani, the deputy chairman of GASC. The new deals of rice are expected to bridge the gap in local supply for the staple commodity, which has fallen by 30 per cent in April. The country's Minister of Social Solidarity Gouda Abdel-Khalek said 263,000 tonnes of sugar and other staple commodities were made available for beneficiaries of ration cards nationwide, estimated at 64 million people. Each individual gets two kilogrammes of rice, 1.5 kilogrammes of food oil and two kilogrammes of sugar at LE1.5, LE4.24 and LE1.25 per kilogramme respectively, according to officials. The most populous Arab country of 80 million people produces around 1.3 million tonnes of sugar annually, while consumption exceeds 2.5 million tones, according to official reports. Around 40 per cent of Egyptians live on less than $2 a day, according to the World Bank. The Egyptian Government also sells subsidised (baladi) bread at LE0.05 per loaf. In 2010, Egypt, the world's top wheat importer, consumed 17.9 million tonnes of wheat, of which 60 per cent were imported. Grain imports cost the State budget $3 billion annually.
