Reducing Postharvest Losses
In the OIC Member Countries
80
production of wheat. However, water resources are limiting. The market was liberalised in
1987, and guaranteed floor prices are announced for wheat and rice at planting time.
Egypt has a history of elaborate food subsidies
which reflect its efforts to promote social equity
and political stability. Wheat is the backbone of
the food security policy in Egypt, about half the
total consumption of wheat is baladi bread
subject to subsidy, with the baladi bread subsidy
amounting to ~0.8% of Egypt’s GDP in 2010/11
(FAO, 2015). Subsidised baladi bread is symbolic
of the broader social contract between the
Egyptian government and the population (Ahmed
et al., 2001). Wheat flour as well as baladi bread (based on wheat), and oil and sugar are the
four remaining subsidy items and a major component of the social safety net (which also
includes water, energy, housing, education, health and transportation) for the poor. However,
analyses show the poor benefit slightly less than the rich from this subsidy, and the lack of
bakeries in rural locations mean the urban poor receive more. In such an import dependent
country, upward fluctuations of international wheat prices highlight the need for safety nets.
Strategic stocks are able to help isolate the country from such an effect, and given the
magnitude of the income effects might even be justified (Siam and Croppenstedt, 2007).
In 1960, Egypt was essentially self-sufficient in food (Ministry of Supply and Home Trade -
Egypt, 1988). Traditionally the staple Egyptian bread was made of maize (corn) mixed with
wheat in a roughly 60/40 or 70/30 ration, or corn alone with a small admixture of fenugreek.
By 1980, the gap between agricultural production and food consumption had reached about
nine million tons in all the key food commodities combined. The heavy economic burden of
food imports led to major investments in the agricultural sector beginning in the early 1980s
(Galal, 2002).
Bread is the only food commodity heavily subsidised now. Data from food balance sheets show
there were two major shifts in the Egyptian food supply from the mid-1950s to the mid-1990s.
One was an increase in per capita grain availability and a shift from a dependence on mixed
grains (wheat, corn, rice and sorghum) to a more nearly total dependence on wheat (Galal,
2002).
The maize grown in Egypt is mainly white maize, although the planting of yellow maize
intended for animal feed is increasing. The only grain that is exported in any volume from
Egypt is rice, which is considered high-quality and fetches a high price. However, due to it
being a heavy consumer of water, the government is trying to discourage farmers from
planting rice. Geographical bans on planting areas and controls (and occasional bans) on rice
exports are in place, but not always effective (Wally, 2016; FAO, 2015).
4.1.2. Assessment of Postharvest Losses and Economic Burden
There is very limited published literature on the level and causes of cereal postharvest losses
in Egypt, and much of that which exists is rather dated and heavily focused on the storage
stage of the postharvest system. Studies in the 1970s on the level of typical storage weight
losses in warehouses due to insect pests recorded 24.2-47.8% for wheat, 16.2-27.9% for maize
and 26.3-46.9% for sorghum by the summer (Koura and El-Halfaway, 1973). A later study
concluded that external insect infestation, grain weight loss, insect fragment content in milled
Baladi bread