At present, a policy of de-intervention prevails in the area of cereal crop-production and marketing. Aside from designating appropriate regional rice varieties to plant, the MOA allows farmers to make their own decisions about which crops to cultivate.
The trend towards desubsidization continues and only the consumption of balady and shami breads is still subject to government intervention, and will be the last of the food subsidies to be withdrawn. On the other hand, wheat importation for the milling of 72% extraction rate flour has been opened up to the private sector since August 1993, and most of the trade in higher quality flour is in the hand of private importers who use rented milling capacity and market the end product for cookies, pastry, biscuits, and pasta production. In the meantime, a number of Egyptian companies are in the process of importing flour milling equipment to run their own mills, thus avoiding having to rent public enterprise sector milling capacity owned by public holding companies for milling.
At present, price floors exist for wheat and rice, and all production inputs are sold at market prices as production subsidies have been mostly eliminated.
The liberalised import environment allows the sale of a greater variety of food products ranging from breakfast cereals to apples.
Quantitative controls on imports, bilateral agreements and special trade concessions are not significant factors affecting Egyptian agricultural trades. Since 1991 Egypt has been a relatively minor recipient of food aid.
European Union (EU) donations of french wheat continue to be made at reduced levels. Similarly, World Food Program supplies of flour are still provided.
USAID has funded the National Agricultural Research Project (NARP) in Egypt over the past five years at a total cost of about $ 200 million. These funds are used to finance agricultural research projects and to provide training for Egyptian academics and government officials involved in agricultural production including cereal grains. NARP is scheduled to be phased out in September 1995.
Constraints
Grain importers routinely face delays in discharge when signs of insects are detected by the quarantine personnel at the ports in the incoming cargoes and re-fumigation is ordered.
Acreage and crop quality are affected when irrigation supplies are irregular or insufficient, a problem common in pockets of the Delta for rice and other crops. The biggest limiting factor to increase agricultural output is the delivery of water to desert lands.
Unlike other countries in the south, like Sudan or Ethiopia, Egypt has not had to confront drought. There is no starvation, though it could be argued that some malnutrition exists.