By: Mohamed Eyad

Egypt’s Cabinet recently affirmed that the country’s inventory for 13 strategic goods was stable and secure.

After a meeting on Wednesday the Cabinet stated that the country’s wheat inventory had enough reserves to last until June 2013, adding that after the country’s local wheat import season, that amount would increase, enabling it to last until the end of the year.

Sugar deposits were also expected to be enough to last the country until the end of the year.

Egypt’s cooking rice reserves were estimated to total 3 million tonnes, and expected to last until the end of February 2014, or at least until the beginning of the country’s rice harvest season beginning in September.

The Cabinet further affirmed the stabilisation of the country’s meat, milk and poultry reserves, adding that state imports of beans, vegetable oil, fish, and milk during the month of February, would provide Egypt with enough US Dollar credits to meet the country’s food needs for the time being.

Import approvals for meat, milk and poultry were also reported as being enough to last until the month of Ramadan.

The cabinet also reviewed plans calling for the equitable distribution of diesel fuel subsidies in all of Egypt’s governorates. The number of fuel shortages seen in local distribution centers throughout Egypt were actually reported to have decreased recently from 122 instances on 12 March, to 95 cases on 19 March, with the number of centres reported to have obtained stable levels of fuel increasing from 111 on 12 March, to 142 on 19 March.

Egypt’s Cabinet continued to review plans to help address fuel shortages seen in these provinces, such as increasing the number of search and seizure campaigns launched against smugglers. Over 2,250 such operations have so far been launched over the last 10 days, apprehending a total of 107 violators who are currently awaiting prosecution. These seizures, it was reported, have helped increase the amount of fuel successfully making its way to diesel distribution stations over the last several weeks.