Private-Al-Jazeera Net
For thousands of years, the Egyptians have been celebrating these days the wheat harvest, one of the good seasons that has been associated with folk rituals, songs and chants sought by workers throughout the harvest stages.
However, aspects of the celebration were absent from the country in recent years with the decline in wheat cultivation, as Egypt is now not only the largest importer of wheat, but is also its largest consumer with figures ranging from 14.5 to 15 million tons of wheat annually, according to official data.
Local production is not enough, except 34.5% of Egypt's wheat needs, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, and the total of what was imported in 2019 was about 13 million tons, of which seven million tons are for the public sector (SCA) and six million tons for the private sector, with a bill that exceeds three Billions of dollars.
The Egyptian farmer complains these days of the decline in the value of wheat, the absence of government support, in addition to the lack of fertilizers and pesticides to protect the crop from diseases.