Egypt’s government has banned the export of all types of sugar for the next three months starting from Wednesday excluding the quantities that exceed local market demand.
The announcement in this regard was made by the Minister of Trade and Industry Ahmed Samir.
The Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade will estimate the excessive quantities and should be approved by the ministry before export, as per the decree published in the Official Gazette.
The step has been taken to ensure that there is sufficient sugar for domestic consumption for human or industrial use.
Companies generally get higher returns by exporting sugar when there is a rise in global sugar prices.
Egypt cultivated 620,000 feddans of sugar beet this year to overcome the shortage in sugarcane and is expecting to produce 1.8 million tons of sugar from beet.
The government has increased the procurement prices for the current season’s local sugar beets by EGP 75 per tonne to promote farmers to cultivate more sugar beets to double the production.
The country is working on increasing agricultural land through a land reclamation program.
