For the second week in a row, workers in Hamool beet sugar factory (Delta Sugar Company), in Kafr el-Sheikh governorate, continued their strike on Sunday, demanding higher wages amid soaring sugar prices.
The workers complained that Food Industries Holding Company buys the sugar at low prices and sells it at high prices, while they get at all nothing of this profit.
The workers sealed the factory's gate and prevented trucks from loading any sugar.
Hani Abdel Haleem, one of the striking workers told Al-Masry Al-Youm that he and his colleagues intend to continue the strike and sit-in inside the factory; also, that they will not allow any amounts of sugar to be transferred outside the complex.
Haleem demanded that the company disclose where the sugar goes and exactly who benefits from the margin between the two prices, while workers in the factory get nothing from these "huge" profits.
The general manager of the factory, Suleiman Hassan, told Al-Masry Al-Youm, that the plant is currently under maintenance and stopped production because it hasn't received any quantities of beet. It is now awaiting harvest season, he said.
He added that maintenance includes equipments and buildings.
Hassan said that when the factory resumes production, the management is committed to producing sugar and handing it over to the Food Industries Holding Company to be sold at the price determined by the state, because the factory is in fact a state institutions.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
