The cultivation of sugar crops represents the main source of sugar supply in Egypt, and Egypt early recognized the cultivation of sugar cane in Upper Egypt, as its climate is closer to the tropical regions that grow sugar cane in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Therefore, sugar cane is one of the oldest crops known to Egypt, and it started as early as the nineteenth century in the sugar industry and accumulated experience in agriculture and industry so that it had many comparative advantages in this field that it transferred to many countries around the world, and even the expertise of the public sector sugar company arrived to fully manufacture equipment and spare parts, unlike many other industries that rely on components from abroad.
Therefore, when the economic liberalization began, the priority of the IMF and its affiliates was to destroy all elements of independent development, increase Egypt’s ties to the global economy, submit to the international division of labor, and stop producing a number of goods in favor of more imports and dependence on abroad, as happened in the textile industry and the cane sugar industry. Egyptian agriculture was dismantled, Egyptian varieties were destroyed, local seed multiplication was prevented, and reliance on imported seeds that are only grown for one season was encouraged.
The sugarcane industry has been targeted because it has accumulated decades of experience that qualifies it to be an independent industry without the need for imports. The attack on sugarcane began as a water-intensive crop and the need to replace it with beets as a source of sugar. During this period, the export crops strategy promoted by Youssef Wali(1) dominated, a policy that mandated the production of strawberries and cantaloupes for export and the import of wheat, corn, and other crops.
For decades, the cultivation of cane and its sugar industry has been deliberately attacked and neglected, in favor of the introduction of beet cultivation and its sugar industry. Therefore, we see that sugar crops over the decades have been an arena for interventions in order to deepen food dependency and implement the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund and its affiliates.
We saw the importance of studying and following up the conditions of sugarcane cultivation and industry over the past years, as well as beet cultivation and industry, and how the food gap in sugar has increased and the dependence on foreign countries to cover nearly 25% of Egypt’s sugar needs has increased, with all the pressure on the availability of foreign currency needed for imports, on the one hand, and increasing the trade balance deficit and balance of payments, on the other.
We also examined the situation of women in Egyptian agriculture and the extent to which they have access to resources or are excluded. We also addressed the organizations of cane producers in their various forms and levels and their role in defending the rights of cane producers and sugar crops.
We also addressed the issue of the average annual per capita consumption of sugar and whether the Egyptian people are excessive in sugar consumption and use or not, so we presented the average consumption at the global level and then at the Arab level. We discussed the conflicting data between different sources in Egypt. We refuted the government’s approaches to maintaining the price of sugar in the market, including the commodity exchange and the inclusion of sugar in it and whether it is a solution to the crisis, then the consideration of sugar among seven other strategic commodities and the threat of imposing mandatory pricing for it, pressures from importers and owners of packaging factories, and examples of corruption cases that have been raised during the past months to show who are the cause of the crisis and who benefit from it.
Finally, we presented the impact of sugar prices on the citizen and how inflation over the past year was reflected in the prices of the food and drink basket on the one hand, and the prices of the sugar crops group on the other. In the end, we arrived at how dependency policies led to the reluctance of cane producers to cultivate it and trapped the cane industry for the benefit of increasing dependency on international companies and the global market, which currently covers a quarter of Egypt’s sugar needs.
The study relied on primary sources of data, especially the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Center, in addition to studies published in scientific journals and media sources as a secondary source.
We have tried to shed light on the mechanisms of dependency in sugar crops and how they have played out over the last five decades. We hope that we have been able to clarify the situation of the sugar crops market in Egypt.
Elhamy Elmirghany – Egypt
Full study in Arabic on: The Link
