It was a mixed bag on the talk shows over the weekend: Commodities was something of a theme as the pundits took a look at what went down at one of ecommerce startup MaxAB’s warehouses over the weekend, as well as getting into the nitty gritty of newly implemented shop licensing laws and an expected bump to the state’s local wheat purchase price.

Goods seized at the MaxAB warehouse in Qalyubia: The governor of Qalyubia and other “relevant authorities” ordered the seizure of tons of commodities at the warehouse of ecommerce outfit MaxAB because of a mistaken belief that the company was hoarding both subsidized and unsubsidized products, MaxAB CEO and co-founder Belal El Megharbel told El Hekaya (watch, runtime: 9:05). MaxAB will be providing receipts to the government to get back its goods, El Megharbel said. MaxAB raised a USD 40 mn round to fund its expansion in 2022.

Shop owners aren’t jumping to get licensed: Only 2.7k of the 4 mn unlicensed shops in the country have so far applied for licenses under the newly-introduced Public Shops Law, Rep. Mohamed Al Fayoumi told Al Hekaya’s Amr Adeeb in a phone call (watch, runtime: 5:32.) Licenses cost between EGP 1k and EGP 100k depending on the location and size of the shop, Al Fayoumi told Al Hadath Al Youm in a phone call (watch, runtime: 6:36.) Only shops operating in 34 specific activities — rather than all shops — need to obtain security clearances to get a license, Al Fayoumi told Sada El Balad (watch, runtime: 3:02). Owners of unlicensed shops have one year from the law’s implementation last December to apply to obtain licenses, which should be issued within 90 days.

A 25-35% increase in the state’s wheat purchase price? Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa speculated that the price per ardeb of wheat that the state offers to local farmers could rise to EGP 1.25k-1.35k from last year’s EGP 1k (watch, runtime: 3:25). The cabinet will announce its final price for the 2023 season following its weekly meeting on Wednesday, according to Saad (watch, runtime: 10:26.)

AND- Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly’s trip to North Sinai with several government ministers to follow up on development projects got airtime on Masaa DMC (watch, runtime: 1:39), Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 5:36), and Kelma Akheera (watch, runtime: 4:32).