Egypt imports rice to control market, prevent increasing prices

The decision to import rice aims at controlling the market and preventing the prices hike, Head of Rice division of the Federation of Industries Ragab Shehata said.

Shehata clarified that importing rice does not mean that the local market is in need of the product as the rice crop which is scheduled to be harvested in the second half of July, will cover 90 percent of the local market requirements.

He pointed out that the scheduled rice harvest is expected to reach about 4 million tons of barely rice and over 500,000 tons of barely rice will be imported to produce about 300,000 tons of white rice.

“There are several countries to import rice from, including Thailand, India, Russia, the United States and Argentina,” the head of rice division stated.

He also noted that the companies began to communicate with the Ministry of Agriculture to obtain import approvals.