Egyptian rice
Social media erupted with anger in Egypt after tweets were circulated about selling Egyptian rice in Saudi Arabia at a lower price than in Egypt.
The story began when Saudi Arabia’s Carrefour presented a one-day offer on March 11 on Egyptian Al-Ahram rice, weighing 5 kilograms, at 12.95 riyals, equivalent to about 21.4 pounds per kilo.
According to local media, the price of loose and packaged rice in Egypt is 26 pounds. It turns out that the price outside the discount is 19.95 riyals, which means that a kilo in Saudi Arabia is 32.90 pounds.
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Rice in Egypt witnessed a significant increase during the past months, at a rate that sometimes doubled, due to the inflation that Egypt witnessed recently.
The Egyptian rice caused a state of controversy in Egypt over the price of rice.
Users shared pictures of the “Carrefour” store advertisement, describing what is being circulated as an “economic miracle”.
Wael El-Shazly said: “A kilo of Egyptian rice stands in Saudi Arabia at the equivalent of 21.5 pounds, and the same is sold in the supermarket under the house for 28 pounds, and this is the summit of the economic miracle.”
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Activists considered that “the export of Egyptian rice is an export of Egyptian water, as an acre of rice (4,200 square meters and fractions of a meter) consumes about 3,000 cubic meters of water,” they said.
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The conspiracy theory was not lost on the tweets of some Egyptians.
One of them said: “After it was discovered that Egyptian rice was exported to many countries at lower prices than Egypt, despite the people’s need for this, it became certain that the issue of destroying domesticated wealth was intended so that the same monopoly could achieve the greatest gains (mostly personal) at the expense of national security, as medicine represents Food is one of its branches.
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On the other hand, many criticized what is being circulated on social media, stressing that what is sold in some countries is the name of the type of rice (Egyptian rice) and not what is grown in Egypt.
Dr. Mahmoud said: “Egyptian rice is the name of the type of rice and not because it is cultivated in Egypt. This type of rice is grown abundantly in southern Italy and is exported to the Gulf with a very small percentage from Egypt, but what is widespread in the Gulf was not cultivated in Egypt”.
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Tweeters confirmed that Egyptian rice is one of the commodities that have been banned from being exported abroad by a decision of the Egyptian government for a period of 3 years, as it is a strategic commodity.
Abdel Wahed Ashour said: “What I know is that Egyptian rice is forbidden to be exported by a ministerial decision, so I think that this rice is not Egyptian, but it is imported from another country and has Egyptian written on it.”
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Others published pictures of bags of rice, which they said were “sold in Saudi Arabia as Egyptian rice, but they are from other countries.” “.
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Head of domestic catering trade
Dr. Abdel Moneim Khalil, head of the internal trade sector at the Ministry of Supply, said that Egypt has an abundance of commodities, promising citizens that prices will decrease and stabilize during the month of Ramadan.
He added during an interview with the “New Egypt” program: “The state is keen to provide a strategic stock of goods, in implementation of the directives of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, for a long time.”
He acknowledged the occurrence of some problems with the rice commodity, commenting: “What I confirm is that we have sufficient production of rice, and illegal practices at some point led to a shortage of commodities and price manipulation.”
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Egyptian Central Bank
According to local media, the Central Bank of Egypt announced the extension of the grace period for banks to exclude each of rice, beans and lentils from the cash cover by 100% on import operations for trade purposes for a year ending on March 15, 2024.
The Central Bank said that this is in light of its follow-up to the needs of the Egyptian market, and its keenness to facilitate import procedures to meet the needs of citizens.
He added that the decision applies to all import operations for all companies, taking into account the credit study conducted by each bank.
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