Egypt’s strategic sugar reserves ‘safe’ to last for further one year: minister

Egypt has enough strategic sugar reserves to last for one additional year, Supply Minister Khaled Hanafi said in a statement on Saturday.

The reserves are ‘safe’, the minister said, adding that the refinery capacity in the country’s public and private-sector sugar factories is estimated at 4 million tonnes annually.

The country consumes around 3.1 million tonnes of sugar annually.

Egypt’s sugar production reached 2.2 million tonnes in 2016, 900 000 tonnes less than consumed domestically, said the Ministry of Agriculture in a statement earlier in late June.

Sugar is a main staple in the food subsidy system, which benefits around 69 million Egyptians.