The Egyptian Sugar and Integrated Industries Company (ESIIC) announced it would be halting work at the New Abu Qurqas Sugar Factories after 155 years of its operations, shifting the contracted quantities to Girga Sugar Factories in Sohag Governorate, from Monday, January 15, until March 13, 2024.
The company explained that the reason for this is the weak contracted quantities of sugar cane, and their incompatibility with the operation of the highly expensive equipment.
Farmers revealed the reasons for not supplying sugar cane to the company due to the low value of the contracts, their incompatibility with the cost of farming, and the high prices of sugar, treacle, and cane – an increase of LE 50,000 over the factory’s supply price.
The House of Representatives on Tuesday will discuss briefing requests submitted by governorate representatives about the reasons for stopping and not increasing the contracting prices for supplying cane, in proportion to the current price and the cost of farming.
The Director General of Agricultural Affairs at Minya Agriculture Directorate Mohamed Khalaf, said that the cultivated areas of sugar cane spread south of Minya has not decreased, nor has the quantities produced decreased.
Two sugar cane farmers in Minya, Bakr Fouad and Gamal Abdel Hakim, attributed the failure to contract with sugar factories to the low supply prices.
They confirmed that the crop is sold to the private sector for LE 80,000 per acre, supplied to the factory for LE40,000, which incurs huge losses on the farmers.
They noted that harvesting the crop and transporting it to the main roads until the factory officials transport it to its headquarters add to the costs on farmers.
The CEO and Managing Director of ESIIC Essam al-Bedewy, said that the Minya Governorate was producing 950,000 tons of sugar cane, and the factory was receiving 750,000 tons of it until 2020, however last year the factory received 90,000 tons leading to losses of about LE112 million.
He pointed out that the company’s management met with the farmers to discuss increasing their supply to the factory, but the amount of cane supplied to the factory decreased in 2023 to only 10,000 tons – enough to operate the factories for only five days.
Bedewy said that farmers sell the crop to juice shops, which buy their crop at a markup of more than 40 percent compared to the company.
