The Egyptian Minister of Supply and Internal Trade Ali Al-Moselhi on Sunday revealed the reasons for high sugar prices in Egypt recently, attributing it to the rise in sugar prices globally.
The Minister of Supply said in television statements: “There are several factors and variables that affected sugar prices in the last period, which is the global rise in the price of a ton of sugar from US$650 per ton to $780 in the last tender, in addition to the crisis of dollar measures and the movement of the dollar exchange rate in the parallel market from 41 Egyptian pounds against the dollar which reached 51 pounds.”
He added that, “The strategic stock of sugar is sufficient to cover 5.5 months, and despite these increases, supply sugar is still available in large quantities and at a price of 12.5 pounds per kilo.”
He explained that the Ministry of Supply is responsible for providing the strategic reserve of goods and food supplies, and that for the first time in its history the ministry has become not only responsible for providing sugar for ration cards, but rather has born the burden of providing it to the industrial and commercial sectors.