A delegation from the European Commission in Cairo stated that the European Union (EU) and the French Development Agency (AFD) have agreed to provide Egypt with facilities worth 60 million euros ($66 million) to increase the storage capacity of grain silos.
An official from the delegation said in an email message that the financing aims to increase the storage capacity by at least 420,000 tons, most of which will be for wheat and possibly other grains.
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This means an increase in the current storage capacity for wheat in Egypt, which is about 3.5 million tons, by approximately 12%.
The funding forms part of a larger package that was previously announced to support food security in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, which has been affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The package is worth a total of 225 million euros ($240.71 million), with Egypt set to receive 100 million euros of the total amount.
In March, the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and the EU entered into an agreement worth 40 million euros to be spent on projects related to grain and seed production, silo construction, and wheat transportation management within Egypt.
Egypt is one of the largest wheat-importing countries in the world, and it is working to increase its reserves of wheat after the war in Ukraine initially disrupted its purchases.
Last week, a report published by the Egyptian government revealed that the state has established 35 new silos for storing wheat since 2014, bringing the total number of silos to 75 in 2023.
Before the launch of the national silos project, Egypt incurred losses of about 10 billion Egyptian pounds (approximately $640 million)annually due to the quantitative and qualitative losses of wheat, the report said.
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