Supply Minister Mohamed Meselhy has ordered the formation of a committee from the ministry, private sector and other authorities to discuss the measures needed for resolving the sugar shortage crisis and avoiding any similar crises over the coming year.
The decision comes in response to a report by Al-Masry Al-Youm on Saturday that tackled the shortage of sugar.
Speaking to Al-Masry Al-Youm, Meselhy said the committee includes members from the Food Industries Holding Company, General Authority for Supply Commodities, Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce, Federation of Egyptian Industries, as well as representatives of the commercial stores.
The committee aims to identify accurately the local market's needs in sugar and means of meeting those needs. It is scheduled to start its work next week.
Meanwhile, Sayyed Taher, deputy supply minister in Luxor, said the governorate listed the needs of the hotels and tourist coffeeshops in sugar and submitted them to the Food Industries Holding Company. The needs were estimated at 10 tons daily with costs of LE10,000 per ton.
Taher added that they seek to prevent the tourists from being affected by the crisis, especially after the company decided to raise the price for the industrial sector to reach LE10,000 per ton, while those who get subsidy can get it at LE7,000 per ton.
The Cabinet, according to Taher, accepted granting the governorate with 100 tons of sugar every 48 hours at the price of LE7,000 per ton.
The sugar will be distributed to the outlets of the cities, in addition to the sugar of the ration cards, estimated to be between 1,200 to 1,500 tons monthly.
He indicated that campaigns had been launched by the supply department to fight price hikes and the monopoly of goods, in order to apply control over the markets. In these campaigns, 411 violations were found over the past month alone.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
