Back to the complete issue
Wednesday, 24 October 2018

Cairo Metro prices and Egypt’s “potato crisis” mark an otherwise uneventful night for talk shows

The airwaves had little to offer last night, with the talking heads busying themselves with metro ticket prices and a shortage of potatoes.

The Transport Ministry is working on a new pricing scheme for the new Cairo Metro lines that will be launched soon, Deputy Minister Amr Shaat told Yahdoth fi Masr. The first and second lines will not be part of this new pricing system, Shaat said, adding that Line 3 is likely to be opened to the public after around two months of tests (watch, runtime: 2:27). Trial operations on the new metro line began last week. Shaat also briefly discussed the new railway line that will link Egypt and Sudan (more on that in What We’re Tracking Today), saying that funding is currently the project’s largest concern (watch: runtime: 3:06). Transport Minister Hisham Arafat was also quizzed about both issues on Al Hayah Al Youm (watch here, runtime: 5:41 and here, runtime: 8:16)

Meanwhile, Masaa DMC’s Osama Kamal got into a lengthy discussion about a “crisis” caused by a shortage of potatoes. Kamal spoke to members of the Potato Producers Association, who told him that farmers planted smaller crops this year after they were underpaid last year. Climate change has also affected the crop’s quality this year, they added. Kamal also spoke to the head of the Agriculture Ministry’s central crops unit and to MPs about the shortage (watch, runtime: 4:55 and here, runtime: 1:04:46)

Meanwhile, Hona Al Asema’s Dina Zahra had a chat with Egyptian athletes at the Youth Olympics in Argentine (watch, runtime: 20:07).

Enterprise is a daily publication of Enterprise Ventures LLC, an Egyptian limited liability company (commercial register 83594), and a subsidiary of Inktank Communications. Summaries are intended for guidance only and are provided on an as-is basis; kindly refer to the source article in its original language prior to undertaking any action. Neither Enterprise Ventures nor its staff assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, whether in the form of summaries or analysis. © 2022 Enterprise Ventures LLC.

Enterprise is available without charge thanks to the generous support of HSBC Egypt (tax ID: 204-901-715), the leading corporate and retail lender in Egypt; EFG Hermes (tax ID: 200-178-385), the leading financial services corporation in frontier emerging markets; SODIC (tax ID: 212-168-002), a leading Egyptian real estate developer; SomaBay (tax ID: 204-903-300), our Red Sea holiday partner; Infinity (tax ID: 474-939-359), the ultimate way to power cities, industries, and homes directly from nature right here in Egypt; CIRA (tax ID: 200-069-608), the leading providers of K-12 and higher level education in Egypt; Orascom Construction (tax ID: 229-988-806), the leading construction and engineering company building infrastructure in Egypt and abroad; Moharram & Partners (tax ID: 616-112-459), the leading public policy and government affairs partner; Palm Hills Developments (tax ID: 432-737-014), a leading developer of commercial and residential properties; Mashreq (tax ID: 204-898-862), the MENA region’s leading homegrown personal and digital bank; Industrial Development Group (IDG) (tax ID:266-965-253), the leading builder of industrial parks in Egypt; Hassan Allam Properties (tax ID:  553-096-567), one of Egypt’s most prominent and leading builders; and Saleh, Barsoum & Abdel Aziz (tax ID: 220-002-827), the leading audit, tax and accounting firm in Egypt.