Sep 4, 2023

September 4, 2023 It is no longer only the rise in prices that the Egyptians suffer from in the time of the coup; With the continuous economic collapse, the increase in external and internal debts, the decline in the value of the pound against the dollar, the detention of shipments of goods and imports at ports and customs, and the halting of production in many factories and companies, the markets began to complain of a major shortage of some commodities and products. These conditions forced the Ministry of Supply of the coup government to remove rice from the list of supply commodities, under the pretext of its high price and the reduction of subsidies to less than 50 pounds per person. It is noteworthy that with the annual core inflation rate from last June reaching 41 percent, according to the Central Bank of Egypt, and the exponential worsening of the prices of all commodities, a crisis of scarcity and depletion appeared on the surface, and a decline in the supply of important and strategic commodities in shops and supermarkets. Sugar Sugar is among the commodities that have become suffering from a major shortage in the market, which prompted its prices to rise dramatically with the decrease in market supply, despite the coup government’s decision to ban the export of sugar for a period of 3 months. This crisis was revealed by Hassan Al Fandi, head of the Sugar Division at the Federation of Industries, stressing that the price of sugar for factory land delivery jumped by about 26 percent within a month, to reach 24 thousand pounds per ton, compared to 19 thousand in early July. Hazem Al-Menoufi, a member of the Foodstuffs Division of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, said: “There is a systematic plan to thirst the market by reducing the quantities of sugar offered in the markets, accusing the sweets and jam factories of storing large quantities that affected the supply.” In press statements, Al-Menofi warned of the impact of the crisis on the Egyptians, especially with the approaching birthday of the Prophet and the manufacture of birthday sweets. pharmaceutical The Egyptian Center for the Protection of the Right to Medicine (Ibn Sina) revealed a significant shortage in the drug market, whether manufactured locally or imported, warning of the consequences of the crisis and its danger to patients. Dr. Mahmoud Fouad, the executive director of the center, said on the social networking site Facebook: “The lack of medical supplies has become a serious matter, stressing that there are no heart valves in hospitals, and that patients have to wait for months, even in private hospitals, and there are no artificial lungs.” Fouad confirmed in press statements that there is a shortage of contraceptive drugs, saying: “For the first time I see a government doing the impossible to increase the number of births, especially with a shortage of contraceptive drugs.” He pointed out that for diabetics, “the (Saxenda) pen increased its price from 876 pounds to 1314 pounds, stressing that with the great increase, it is not available. They warned Fouad that all targeted therapy drugs, oncology drugs, hormone drugs or immunological diseases are not available in government units. He wondered: Does the Egyptian Medicines Authority – formed in 2019 – have full courage, respect for its coup cabinet, appreciation for the people, and announce lists of drug shortages? Stressing that this procedure was taking place in Egypt, but it stopped after the establishment of the commission at the time of the coup. Gas With the power outage crisis, the coup government admitted that there was a shortage of gas and fuel that led to a crisis in the operation of power stations, which prompted it to resort to cutting off electricity in all governorates of the republic since last July, under the pretext of reducing loads and reducing consumption. Salah Hafez, former vice president of the General Petroleum Corporation, said: “The problem of power outages is due to the shortage of gas and diesel.” Hafez confirmed in press statements that it was possible to compensate for the lack of production of the Zohr gas field by importing diesel fuel, but it is difficult to achieve this with the shortage of the dollar and the deficit of the military state’s budget. the rice The Egyptian market suffers from a severe shortage of rice, despite the existence of a surplus in production, which amounts to about 6 million tons of barley rice, equivalent to 3.5 million tons of white rice, which is in excess of the domestic consumption of 3.2 million tons annually, with a surplus of about 300,000. tons. However, with the end of the rice harvest, which begins in September of each year and continues until October, the Egyptian market is facing a major crisis with the scarcity of rice and its high price, while the coup’s Ministry of Supply’s decision to price rice failed to solve the crisis, which prompted the coup government to cancel the rice ration cards. In this context, Mr. Dayra, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Supply of the Coup in Dakahlia, claimed that the reason for canceling the disbursement of rice on ration cards is due to the fact that the citizen’s share of the subsidy is 50 pounds, and the priority in the ration cards is for oil and sugar at the rate of a bottle of oil and a kilo of sugar, and the rest is available to buy a bag of pasta. Dayra said in press statements: “Before that, there was room for disbursement of rice on ration cards before the prices rose, explaining that the system evaluates its value according to the value of the support allocated to the ration cards.” He pointed out that the supply of rice in the market will be cheaper than the supply in the supermarket, as he put it.