Lamees launches her version of the View, gov’t raises wheat prices for farmers; Adib cries shame at Egypt’s booth in ITB expo
It was a fairly boring night for on the airwaves, as discussions were mainly centered around food prices, subsidies and the exchange rate.
Lamees El Hadidy was the only one to give a shout out to international women’s day by kicking off her version of the View, Hona Al Settat, with an episode centered around domestic violence (watch, runtime 32:31).
Al Hayah Al Youm’s Tamer Amin spoke to the Deputy Head of the Tax Authority Mohamed Abdel Sattar briefly about the recently-issued VAT executive regulations (watch, runtime 4:21). He then discussed with cabinet spokesperson Ashraf Sultan about the government’s decision to purchase wheat from farmers at EGP 575 per ardeb (up from EGP 420) and reduce the price of subsidized rice to EGP 6.5 per kilo (watch, runtime 5: 24).
Times are tough, so the new wheat prices will have to do, Farmers Union Head Roushdy Arnout told Yahduth fi Masr’s Sherif Amer, explaining that farmers were hoping for a price closer to EGP 650 per ardeb.
Amer was also concerned with bread subsidies but then was reassured that “things are much calmer now” by the head of the bakeries division at the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI), Abdullah Ghorab, who commended Supply Minister Ali El Moselhy for issuing some 100k smart subsidy cards on Wednesday.
The host then moved on to the USD exchange rate with the head of the FEI’s importers division Osama Gaafar who said is likely to continue rising against the EGP to as much as EGP 19 per greenback as preparations for Ramadan peak.
Meanwhile on planet Kol Youm, Amr Adib took up his customary critical tone to take a stab at what he called Egypt’s lackluster booth at the ITB Berlin expo and the proposal to hike Egypt’s visa fees, which he said was driving potential tourists away (watch, runtime 1:52). Adib also compared different countries’ displays at the expo, singing Turkey’s praises for its extravagant setup. “This is what a country with problems does to attract new tourists,” he bellowed (watch, runtime 10:12). Needless to say, he was not too impressed with the dancers swaying to the tunes of Boshret Kheir by the Egypt booth (watch, runtime 2:17).