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Sunday, 8 May 2016

Wheat harvest collection stalled, agriculture and supply ministries point fingers

The ministries of agriculture and supply have been playing the blame game over which ministry was responsible for stalled collection and storage of locally harvested wheat, prompting cabinet to form a joint committee to expedite the process, Al Borsa reports. Domestic harvests have been piling at shouna and silos of late, with the Agriculture Ministry blaming the delay on the Supply Ministry not approving storing the wheat in 140 shounas and the supply minister delaying payments to farmers. Supply Ministry officials have blamed the Agriculture Ministry’s tallying and registration process for the delay. The beef between the ministries was touched on last week, after Agriculture Ministry officials reportedly caught the Supply Ministry trying to mix foreign and subsidized wheat. The Agriculture Ministry said all necessary precautions had been taken to “avoid the selling of cheaper imported wheat to the government during the procurement season and falsely labelling it as Egyptian wheat.” Despite the wrangling and inefficiencies of the process, Egypt has bought 1.15 mn tonnes of local wheat since the beginning of the procurement season on April 15, the cabinet said on Saturday, according to Reuters. The country is planning to buy 4 mn tonnes of Egyptian wheat in 2016.

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