Egypt lowers 2025 wheat self-sufficiency target to 51%

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Egypt has lowered its wheat self-sufficiency target for the current fiscal year, even as it plans to increase its farmed area, a cabinet report showed on Wednesday, in line with plans to diversify agricultural exports.

The target of 51 per cent self-sufficiency for one of the world’s largest wheat importers for the fiscal year that ends in June 2025 is a slight increase from the previous year but lower than the previously announced 65 per cent target for 2025.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in May 2024 that Egypt did not need to grow more wheat but could instead use farmland to grow other exportable crops and then spend the revenue to import wheat.

The Egyptian government buys wheat internationally and locally in order to offer tens of millions of Egyptians subsidized bread. Local wheat production currently meets 49% of demand, according to the cabinet report, up from 45% in 2020.

Egypt’s economy has been suffering from a hard currency shortage that only eased when the UAE signed a $35bn deal in February for the right to develop a stretch of the Mediterranean coast and other projects. That was followed by an expanded loan agreement of $8bn with the International Monetary Fund and other international financing.

The cabinet report also showed that Egypt aims to produce enough local wheat to meet 56 per cent of its demand by 2030 from a total farmed area of 12 million feddans (12.5 million acres).

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