An international study on the wheat market in Egypt confirmed that the impact of the domestic wheat supply this year has dropped. The expected supply amount will be weak and Egypt's wheat reserve will be enough for five months. The report issued by the World Council for Grain expected that the total consumption of wheat in Egypt, in the current season, will be 16 million tons with the average of 195 kilograms per person. The issue pointed that the government imported about 4.5 million tons in the period from July 2008 to February 2009. 85% of this was used to produce the wheat for the community bakery. The report also mentioned that the amount of wheat in this period is less than the amount recorded from the same period last year by one million tons. This is due to the increase of the domestic production but it is expected that the Egyptian imports next year will reach 8.3 million tons including 6 millions for the General Authority for Supply Commodities while the rest is imported by the private sector. The report also mentioned that the General Authority for Supply Commodities plans to purchase 3.5 million tons this year however many observers doubt that this can be achieved. They justified their opinion by stating that the private sector will continue to offer farmers their special prices whilst the rest of the production will either will be bought by the consumers directly or will be reserved by the farmer for his usage. The report predicated that the amount of US wheat in the Egyptian market will decrease by 29%; about 1.5 million tons of the imported wheat and the rest imported from Ukraine and Canada. The report added that the grinding capacity in Egypt is more than the required capacity. This is due to Egypt's need to grind the wheat at 72% (about 1.8 million tons) which is equal to 2.5 million tons while the grinding capacity is 3.76 million tons.
