Five local and international consortiums have submitted offers to establish three cooking oil complexes with investments of up to USD 321 mn, a Supply Ministry source told Enterprise, confirming comments attributed to Supply Minister Ali El Moselhy by local media. Our source declined to disclose the names of the bidding companies. The offers come amid state efforts to localize the industry in response to the war in Ukraine, which disrupted global food supply chains.

REMEMBER- News on the planned tenders first came in October with the state planning three cooking oil complexes in Alexandria, Sohag and Sadat City. The three complexes would be specialized in the extraction, pressing and packaging of vegetable oils, Holding Company for Food Industries board member Ahmed Abu El Yazid told us in November.

The current state of production: Egypt has four companies — all affiliated with the state-owned Holding Company for Food Industries — working in the production of edible oils with a refining capacity of about 40k tons per month. Egypt currently imports some 1.7 mn tons of raw vegetable oil annually, with palm oil accounting for two-thirds of that figure, while sunflower and corn oil make up the rest. We cover our domestic consumption needs for sunflower oil primarily through imports, with Ukraine typically accounting for 55% of Egypt’s sunflower imports, while Russia covers another 19%.

The push for localization: The government is looking to localize the vegetable oil industry as part of a push to boost food security and become less reliant on all types of imports amid uncertainty in global markets. It also wants to become a regional hub for producing and exporting Malaysian palm oil by signing trade agreements with Arab, African and European countries.