Food Security in Egypt

Food security in Egypt remains uneven across various regions and income groups, however the country possesses a large agricultural production base and continues to expand cultivated land and domestic output. The government is strengthening domestic production and the resilience of the food system through land reclamation, investment in irrigation and drainage infrastructure, support for strategically important crops and expansion of grain storage capacity. Guaranteed procurement prices and large-scale public purchases are used to stimulate wheat and maize production, while the national programme for modernising grain storage has expanded silo capacity and introduced digital monitoring systems. Another advantage is the existence of a substantial domestic fertiliser industry, which distinguishes Egypt from many African agricultural economies that depend primarily on imported inputs.

The main risks arise from severe water scarcity, rapid population growth, climate-related pressures on the Nile Delta, soil salinity and nutrient imbalances, as well as substantial dependence on imported staple foods. Food security is also highly exposed to international commodity prices and disruptions to maritime and agricultural supply chains.

Egypt has developed into one of Africa’s major agricultural exporters, especially in horticultural products: fresh agricultural exports reached a record 9.5 mln t in 2025. The same year, the Ministry of Agriculture reported 100% self-sufficiency in eggs and fresh milk, 97% in white meat and 93.5% in fish. In 2026, the government also reported self-sufficiency in rice and sugar. Import dependence is therefore particularly pronounced for commodities associated with bread production, animal feed and edible oils rather than for the food sector as a whole. The domestic production covers approximately 46% of wheat consumption, 48.7% of maize, 5% of soybeans and 18% of vegetable-oil requirements.

The study conducted by the Center for African Studies of the HSE University (see Africa 2025: Opportunities and Risks) places Egypt among the countries in which both the share and the absolute number of undernourished people increased between 2004 and 2024: the prevalence of undernourishment rose from approximately 5% to 9% over this period. Egypt’s population simultaneously increased from about 79.5 mln in 2004 to 116.5 mln in 2024, further increasing pressure on the domestic food system. Nevertheless, the level of undernourishment recorded for Egypt remains considerably below the African average. The prevalence of undernourishment across Africa has generally remained within the 15–20% range over the past two decades, while in 2024 the FAO placed it at 20.2% and at 10.7% in Northern Africa. The country also belongs to a limited small group of African states where access to water sources of acceptable quality exceeds 90%.

Agriculture plays an important role in the Egyptian economy. According to the World Bank estimates, agriculture accounted for 16.6% of GDP in 2025, remarkably higher than the 10–13% range observed over the past six years. In absolute terms, agricultural value added has continued to increase and reached approximately USD 68 bln in 2026.

The agricultural sector is among the country’s substantial sources of employment, accounting for approximately 18% of the labour force in 2025. Overall, around 57% of Egypt’s population lives in rural areas, and agriculture continues to provide livelihoods for a large share of the rural population and constitutes the main source of income for much of the rural poor. Egypt’s agricultural structure is dominated by small-scale and highly fragmented holdings, which are largely subsistence-oriented. The majority is located in the long-established agricultural areas of the Nile Valley and Delta. Holdings of less than 3 feddans (1.3 ha) account for around 90% of all farms and approximately 40% of total agricultural land.

Egypt’s total cultivated area expanded from approximately 8.7 mln feddans (3.7 mln ha) in 2010 to 10 mln feddans (4.2 mln ha) in 2024, partly compensating for the loss of fertile farmland in the Nile Delta due to urban expansion. The expansion of land suitable for agriculture is linked to Egypt’s long-standing policy of desert land reclamation, which dates back to the 1950, when the Five Feddan Scheme was introduced to allocate desert lands to farmers for reclamation. In 2023, Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation El Sayed El Qusair stated that more than 1.5 mln ha of agricultural land had been added since 2013.

Compared with a total national territory of around 100 mln ha, agricultural land as a whole accounted for only 4.2% of the country’s land area in 2024. Most of Egypt’s territory consists of arid desert, while the Nile Valley and Delta occupy only around 4% of the country’s surface and contain the largest share of its fertile agricultural land. At the same time, agricultural land available per capita fell by approximately 22% between 1990 and 2023 due to population growth and scarce land and water resources. Still, ongoing land-reclamation programmes increased the quantity of land available for agriculture. Land reclamation mainly centers on converting desert land into cultivable agricultural land by providing irrigation, drainage, soil improvement and basic infrastructure. Further extensive growth of the agricultural sector therefore increasingly depends on the reclamation and irrigation of desert land, requiring substantial investment in water infrastructure and efficient use of limited water resources.

Agricultural development is limited by scarce water resources. The Nile accounts for more than 97% of Egypt’s renewable water supply, while groundwater provides around 2.5 bln m³ annually, rainfall about 1.3 bln m³, and desalination approximately 0.4 bln m³. Total water demand is estimated at around 114 bln m³ per year, compared with only about 59 bln m³ of available freshwater resources. Egypt partly compensates for this gap through the extensive reuse of water: approximately 22 bln m³ of agricultural drainage water is currently reused annually, and unconventional water sources of this type amount to around 38.6% of annual renewable water supply.

Agriculture accounted for approximately 76% of total water use in 2023–2024. Less than 2% of agricultural land is rain-fed, thus irrigation represents the principal source of water demand. The largest share of irrigation water use, standing at 61%, is concentrated in Lower Egypt. Traditional methods such as flood irrigation is used at 82% of agricultural land, compared with approximately 10% under drip irrigation and 8% under sprinkler systems. However, the recent data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation show that the combined share of modern drip and sprinkler irrigation systems increased to around 26% of total cultivated area in 2024–2025. Water is distributed through a network of main and branch canals and is then pumped into tertiary canals (mesqas), from which farmers release it into on-farm canals (marwas) according to irrigation schedules.

Crop production accounted for approximately 63% of Egypt’s agricultural sector in 2023–2024. Within the crop production structure, field crops account for 53% of output by value, while vegetables and greenhouse crops contribute approximately 25%, fruit crops – 22%. Among field crops, wheat, maize and rice are the principal cereals, alongside the major industrial crops, such as sugar beet and sugarcane. In the 2026/27 marketing year, production is estimated at approximately 9.2 mln t of wheat, 7 mln t of maize and 4.2 mln t of rice. Production of the two principal sugar crops is forecast at approximately 16 mln t of sugar beet and 12 mln t of sugarcane in 2026/27.

Other important agricultural commodities include oilseeds and cotton, although domestic oilseed production remains small relative to demand. Soybean production is forecasted at approximately 85000 t in 2026/27, while soybean imports are projected at 5.2 mln t. Cotton is an important export-oriented crop. Cotton lint production is forecasted at 325 thousand bales per 217.7 kg (approximately 70,8 thousand t) in 2026/2027, and exports at 350 thousand bales, with around 80% of cotton production concentrated in the Nile Delta. Egypt’s export-oriented crop production is centred primarily on horticultural products. Fresh agricultural exports reached a record 9.5 mln t in 2025, with citrus fruits ranking first at approximately 2 mln t, followed by potatoes at 1.3 mln t and sweet potatoes at 387 thousand t.

Livestock production is another major component of Egypt’s agricultural sector, accounting for approximately 31.7% of the total value of agricultural production in 2023/24, compared with 63% for plant production and 5.5% for fisheries. Poultry meat contributed 12% to the total value of agricultural production, followed by cattle meat and slaughtered animals which contributed almost 7%, milk (6.4%) and chicken eggs (5%). The livestock sector supports around 1.8 mln households and produces approximately 6 mln t of milk and 0.5 mln t of meat annually. Livestock production is concentrated primarily in the Nile Delta and Valley. Beheira, Monufia, Sharqia, Beni Suef, Minya and Sohag governorates account for nearly half of the country’s livestock population.

Agricultural production is widespread among Egypt’s Coptic monasteries, although no official data are available on their total number or aggregate output. They operate agricultural and livestock farms, as plantation fields and farms are a standard component of contemporary monastic infrastructure. Monastic farming is concentrated particularly in the Western Desert, including Wadi El Natrun and the areas of Khatatba and Mariout northwest of Cairo. Agricultural monasteries also exist in Middle and Upper Egypt in Minya and Assiut governorates.

For instance, the Monastery of St. Macarius located in Wadi El Natrun in the Beheira Governorate began reclaiming and cultivating surrounding desert land in 1975. In 1978, President Anwar Sadat granted the monastery an additional 1,000 feddans of desert land to support its agricultural activities. In 1982, the monastery began constructing a mechanised layer-poultry unit with a planned production capacity of 12 mln eggs per year. By 2001, the monastery operated a poultry farm with around 48,000 chickens and a cattle farm with approximately 700 head. The monastery continues to operate a commercial agricultural business through the 3Mac brand, which markets dairy products, dates, olives, juices and other agricultural and processed-food products. Recent production volumes, however, are not publicly disclosed.

Fisheries and aquaculture accounted for approximately 5.5% of the total value of agricultural production in 2023/24. In 2024, Egypt produced approximately 1.6 mln t of farmed aquatic animals, equivalent to 66% of total African aquaculture production, making it by far the continent’s largest producer. Inland capture fisheries contributed a further 0.3 mln t. Current government programmes focus on expanding fish farming at Berket Ghalioun in Kafr El-Sheikh and East Port Said, as well as improving fish resources in Lakes Qarun, Manzala and Burullus.

Egypt has sufficient aggregate food availability to cover average caloric requirements: in 2022–2024, average dietary energy supply was equivalent to 131% of the population’s average dietary energy requirement. Average dietary energy intake requirement is approximately 2,345 kcal per person per day, which falls within the generally accepted range of physiological energy requirements (2,000–2,500 kcal per day, depending on sex, physical activity, and body weight). According to international dietary quality assessments, including the Diet Quality Project, approximately 96% of the population consumes starchy staple foods on a daily basis, making the national diet based predominantly on carbohydrates. Cereals, roots and tubers accounted for approximately 64% of total dietary energy supply in 2020–2022, compared with a global average of around 50%.

Despite relatively high aggregate food availability, 9.4% of the population was estimated to be undernourished in 2022–2024, while around 31% experienced moderate or severe food insecurity. Among children aged 6–23 months, the latest UNICEF observation shows that only 41.6% achieved minimum dietary diversity and 26.2% met the minimum acceptable diet criterion, while 60% consumed eggs and/or flesh foods and 64.6% consumed vegetables and/or fruit. Micronutrient deficiencies remain widespread: the 2021 Egypt Family Health Survey found anaemia among 43% of children under five and 38% of women aged 15–49.

Wheat is an essential component of Egypt’s consumption structure. The country is a major wheat producer, with the 2026 harvest forecast by FAO at around 10 mln t, nearly 7% above the five-year average, but domestic output remains insufficient to meet national requirements. In the 2026/27 marketing year, FAO forecasts wheat import requirements at 13.5 mln t, while total cereal import requirements are expected to reach 29 mln t. Egypt’s cereal import-dependency ratio stood at approximately 43% in 2021–2023. In Egypt, however, this dependence is better understood as a long-standing structural “wheat dependence” rather than an emerging shift toward wheat associated primarily with Westernisation of urban diets. The country’s food-subsidy system dates back to the 1940s, and subsidised baladi bread has become a central element of both household food consumption and national food-security policy.

Egypt’s current food subsidy system, known as tamween, consists of two main pillars: subsidised baladi bread and a ration-card programme. Eligible households can purchase up to five subsidised loaves per person per day, for a maximum of four household members, at a price of USD 0.02 per loaf. In June 2024, the government raised the subsidised bread price to USD 0.004, marking the first increase since 1989. The issue of a non-diversified diet has been exacerbated by renewed food-price pressures: annual food inflation reached 7.6% in May 2026, driven particularly by increases in the prices of fresh vegetables, seafood, meat, bread and cereals.

Fertilizers

Fertilizer use in Egypt is quite intensive. According to the World Bank data, fertilizer consumption reached approximately 532.8 kg of plant nutrients per ha of arable land in 2023, placing Egypt among the countries with the highest application rates globally. The average fertilizer use stood at 414 kg per ha of cropland over the 2019–2023 period, which is the highest level in Africa. Fertilizer application per hectare in Egypt remains more than three times the OECD countries average and several times the MENA average.

Egypt’s fertilizer system is dominated by nitrogen fertilizers, particularly urea and ammonium nitrate. In 2020, easier access to subsidized nitrogen fertilizer was associated with higher nitrogen application and lower use of phosphate fertilizers. In 2022, the nitrogen surplus reached approximately 201 kg per ha, while phosphorus and potassium balances were negative. A 2026 study based on farm surveys revealed that total nitrogen fertilizer use per ha fell by 20.9% between 2018 and 2024, driven primarily by a reduction in purchases of non-subsidized fertilizer amid market and price disruptions.

Egypt has a large domestic fertilizer manufacturing industry. According to the Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor 2025, Egypt produced an average of approximately 3.7 mln t of fertilizer nutrients annually in 2019–2023, comprising 3.4 mln t of nitrogen and 318 thousand t of phosphate. These figures represented 27.8% of total African fertilizer production, making Egypt the continent’s largest producer of nitrogen fertilizer and its second-largest producer of phosphate fertilizer after Morocco. According to the World Bank, fertilizer consumption was equivalent to only 41.5% of domestic fertilizer production in 2023. Over 2019–2023, Egypt accounted for approximately 25% of the total value of Africa’s fertilizer exports, ranking second after Morocco. In 2024, Egypt exported approximately 3.5 mln t of nitrogenous fertilizers worth USD 1.5 bln. The primary destinations were Turkey, Spain and Italy.

Domestic manufacturing is concentrated in natural-gas-based ammonia and urea complexes. In 2023, the state-owned El-Nasr Company for Intermediate Chemicals (NCIC) nitrogen fertilizer complex at Ain Sokhna was inaugurated, featuring six plants with capacities of 1200 t per day of ammonia, 900 t per day of liquid urea, 900 t per day of granular urea, 500 t per day of nitric acid, 650 t per day of liquid ammonium nitrate and 900 t per day of calcium ammonium nitrate. Misr Fertilizers Production Company (MOPCO) located in Damietta and jointly owned by the government of Egypt thought its Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Co with 31.5% stake, state-owned Saudi Egyptian Investment Co (24%) and Alpha Oryx Ltd (UAE, 20%) is another major producer which operates three ammonia trains, each with capacity of approximately 1200 t per day each and three urea trains of approximately 2000 t per day each. In 2025, MOPCO launched a modernization programme that includes carbon capture, higher-efficiency ammonia converters and the use of renewable hydrogen. The project is intended to enable production of up to 150 thousand t of green ammonia annually, while the investment announced by MOPCO amounts to approximately USD 220 million.

In November 2025, an agreement for a new phosphatic chemical complex in the Suez Canal Economic Zone was signed between El Sewedy for Industrial Development and Chinese fertiliser manufacturer CJN. The planned capacities of the complex are 300 000 t per year of diammonium phosphate (DAP) and 300 000 t per year of triple superphosphate (TSP). Given the intensive volume of domestic production, it considerably exceeds domestic fertilizer consumption.

Nevertheless, the structure of domestic production does not fully correspond to the structure of agricultural demand. Nitrogen fertilizers account for approximately 86% of agricultural use, while phosphate and potassium for 11% and 3% respectively. Nitrogen fertilizers, particularly urea and ammonium nitrate, are produced domestically on a large scale and supply both the domestic agricultural market and exports. In 2026, fertilizer producers were required to supply 2.4 mln t annually to the state subsidized-fertilizer system for distribution to Egyptian farmers. Egypt’s import dependence is concentrated primarily in potash fertilizers and certain specialised and compound products.

At the same time, nitrogen-fertilizer production remains highly dependent on the availability and price of natural gas, which creates a potential vulnerability despite Egypt’s substantial manufacturing capacity. In June 2026, the Ministry of Petroleum reported that, following stabilization of gas supplies, fertilizer plants were operating at more than 90% of capacity the previous year. In September 2025, the reform of industrial gas pricing was conducted and the minimum gas price for fertilizer producers was raised to USD 5.5 per MMBtu.

The domestic fertilizer market is subject to substantial state regulation and subsidization. In September 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture reported that farmers receive more than 2.4 mln t of subsidized fertilizer annually, while government expenditure allocated to fertilizer subsidies amounted to approximately USD 789 million. Under the allocation framework introduced in September 2025, manufacturers were required to supply 37% of their output to the Ministry of Agriculture for the subsidized system, while another 10% could be sold on the domestic market at market prices. The remaining output is available primarily for export.

Seeds

Egypt has a relatively developed domestic seed sector, covering variety development, seed multiplication, certification and distribution. Both public institutions and private companies participate in the value chain. However, the degree of domestic self-sufficiency varies substantially by crop. The system is relatively well developed for field crops such as wheat, rice, maize, cotton and food legumes, whereas dependence on foreign planting material remains particularly high for vegetables, seed potatoes, sugar beet and some hybrid maize varieties. The principal institution leading the process of new varieties development is the Agricultural Research Center (ARC) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, including the Field Crops Research Institute for major field crops and the Horticulture Research Institute for horticultural crops within the ARC.

The Ministry currently maintains a Central Administration for Seed Production and a Central Administration for Seed Testing and Certification. In 2025, the Ministry reported that Egyptian research institutions had developed more than 15 bread-wheat varieties and six durum-wheat varieties. Five new high-yielding and climate-tolerant wheat varieties had been registered for introduction from the following season.

The National Vegetable Seed Production Programme is aimed at reducing greater dependence on imported horticultural seed. According to the OECD review, the programme was established in response to a situation in which more than 95% of vegetable-crop seeds were imported. It has developed and registered 26 varieties and hybrids covering ten principal vegetable crops, including tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, watermelon, cantaloupe, peas, beans, cowpeas, cucumbers and zucchini. In January 2025, the Ministry announced the development of eight new Egyptian tomato varieties by ARC’s Horticulture Research Institute and the National Vegetable Seed Production Programme in cooperation with private seed companies. Government programmes also subsidize access to certified seed for small farmers. Under the Azraa initiative, in May 2025 the Ministry of Agriculture agreed to supply certified wheat seed to cultivate 117,650 feddans, with beneficiary farmers paying 50% of the seed cost and the Rural and Environmental Industries Support Fund covering the remaining 50%. The programme was subsequently expanded, with its fourth phase targeting up to 1 mln feddans of wheat and retaining a 50% subsidy on seed purchases for participating smallholders.

Egypt’s seed multiplication system is organized through government seed-production agencies, multiplication fields, processing and grading stations and public-private cooperation. At the same time, access to certified seed remains uneven, particularly among smallholders. Access to high-quality seed and climate-resilient varieties faces continuing constraints, and creation of a centralized, collaborative and continuously updated digital seed platform is recommended for sector coordination and production planning.

Egypt remains highly dependent on imported high-value hybrid vegetable seed and specialized planting material, particularly sugar-beet seed and seed potatoes. In 2024, Egypt imported USD 47.8 mln of vegetable seeds. The largest suppliers by value were Thailand (USD 9.5 million), India (USD 6.3 million), the United States (USD 5.4 million), China (USD 5 million) and Peru (USD 3.6 million). Egypt imported approximately 761 t of sugar-beet seed worth USD 48.3 mln in 2024, of which Germany supplied about 349 t (USD 22.2 million), France 181 t (USD 11.5 million), Belgium 92 t (USD 5.8 million), Denmark 67 t (USD 4.2 million) and Italy 49 t (USD 3 million). Seed potatoes constitute an even larger import flow in physical terms: in 2024 Egypt imported approximately 194 thousand t of seed potatoes worth USD 161 million. Imports of maize seed amounted to USD 15.2 mln in 2024.

Animal feed and veterinary pharmaceuticals

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, technical monitoring and licensing activities covered 538 feed factories with 1,196 feed-production lines across the country. During the same period, 8,702 feed mixtures, additives and concentrates were registered, of which 5,638 were locally produced and 3,064 imported. The principal raw materials for compound feed are yellow maize and soybean meal. Poultry feed consists on average of approximately 70% yellow maize, 20% soybean meal, 4% wheat bran and 2% animal-protein concentrates, with the remainder consisting mainly of minerals, vitamins and other additives.

Egypt also imports substantial quantities of specialized feed preparations, including premixes, concentrates and other formulated products. In 2024, imports of “other preparations of a kind used in animal feeding” amounted to approximately 50,3 thousand t worth USD 97 million. The largest suppliers were China (USD 16 million), Belgium (USD 11.6 million), the Netherlands (USD 6.8 million), Italy (USD 6.6 million) and Germany (USD 6 million).

The veterinary pharmaceutical sector, like the feed industry, combines domestic production with substantial imports. Veterinary pharmaceuticals are regulated by the Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA), which issued 347 new registration licences for veterinary preparations in 2024. New rules for registering veterinary pharmaceuticals were issued in 2025, followed by bioequivalence guidelines for generic veterinary medicines in January 2026 and updated rules governing manufacturing sites for locally registered veterinary medicines in March 2026.

The principal veterinary-vaccine public producer is the Veterinary Serum and Vaccine Research Institute (VSVRI) of the Agricultural Research Center. The expansion of its poultry-vaccine production line increased capacity from 200 mln to approximately 1.5 bln doses per year, as per 2022 data. The Institute reported producing 72 different vaccines, including 43 poultry vaccines and 29 vaccines for farm animals. Domestic capacity has expanded particularly rapidly through the private sector. MEVAC, one of Egypt’s principal veterinary-vaccine manufacturers, had developed and manufactured more than 77 veterinary vaccines and had registered and sold its products in more than 40 countries by early 2025. In June 2025, the company inaugurated its third manufacturing complex in New Salhia, Sharqia Governorate, which increased its installed capacity to more than 12 bln vaccine doses per year.

Egypt is therefore both an importer and an exporter of veterinary vaccines. Imports of “other veterinary vaccines, excluding foot-and-mouth disease vaccines” reached approximately USD 155 mln in 2024, with Spain (USD 61.2 million), the Netherlands (USD 22.6 million), the United States (USD 21.3 million), China (USD 15.9 million) and Hungary (USD 9.4 million) as the principal suppliers. Egyptian exports of the same category amounted to approximately USD 13.2 mln in 2024. The principal destinations were Thailand (USD 2.4 million), the United Arab Emirates (USD 1.9 million), Iraq (USD 1.2 million), Kuwait (USD 0.9 million) and Pakistan (USD 0.9 million).

Antimicrobial use of vaccines in Egyptian livestock production remains widespread. A 2025 peer-reviewed study covering 150 poultry and cattle farms in 15 governorates received responses from 111 farms. All respondents reported using antimicrobials and 65% reported non-therapeutic use, including use for disease prevention or growth promotion. Public provision of preventive veterinary services is relatively extensive: in May 2025, the government reported that the vaccines required by the poultry industry were available through VSVRI and veterinary units across the country, while livestock vaccination is implemented through national campaigns administered by the General Organization for Veterinary Services.

Agricultural machinery

According to the latest CAPMAS Mechanical Agricultural Machines bulletin, in 2023 Egypt had approximately 133,600 agricultural tractors, over 1 mln irrigation machines, 73,900 threshing machines, and 311,800 units of other agricultural machinery and equipment. The latter category includes, among other equipment, harvesters, seed drills, cultivators, transplanters and pesticide sprayers.

Egypt remains dependent on imported higher-technology agricultural machinery. In 2024, the country imported 46 combine harvester-threshers worth USD 7.2 million. The main sources were South Korea, the United States, Japan and Germany. Imports of wheeled tractors amounted to 1,054 units worth USD 37.5 million, the largest suppliers were China, Japan, Romania, Germany and Italy. The latest figure published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation in 2022 identified 132 agricultural mechanization stations covering most governorates. In 2023, the number of tractors by John Deere (USA) totalled 723, CNH Industrial (Netherlands) – 163, Belarussian tractors – 18,483, Volvo (Germany) – 143. In recent years, Egypt has expanded cooperation with Russian machinery suppliers, particularly in the field of combine harvesters and medium-power tractors, through procurement channels and private-sector import agreements. In 2020, Rostselmash started supplying combine harvesters and agricultural equipment to Egypt. By 2023, about 100 machines were supplied.

Import dependence

Egypt depends substantially on imports to cover domestic demand for several staple foods and agricultural raw materials. Agro-food imports reached approximately USD 19 bln in 2024, compared with exports of around USD 10 bln. Cereals, soybeans and palm oil together accounted for more than half of Egypt’s agro-food imports in 2022–2024. The cereal import-dependency ratio reached 43% in 2021–2023, which is an increase in dependence on foreign grain supplies over the preceding two decades.

Among the principal imported agricultural commodities are:

The institutional structure of agricultural imports combines state procurement with a large private trading sector. Until late 2024, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) was responsible for state procurement of strategic commodities. Since December 2024, this function has been transferred to the state-owned Mostakbal Misr Agency for Sustainable Development. Importing companies must be registered with the General Organisation for Export and Import Control (GOEIC), while imports of wheat grain, feed maize and soybeans intended for oil extraction require written approval under the regulatory framework for strategic agricultural commodities. Government agencies are exempt from this requirement. Grain and oilseed imports are additionally inspected by the Central Administration for Plant Quarantine, while food-safety controls are administered by the National Food Safety Authority.

Egypt has substantial domestic milling capacity, while the soybean-processing industry has a total crushing capacity of approximately 10 mln t per year, however facilities use only 55-60% of their capacity. Imported soybeans are converted domestically into meal and oil, and most imported crude palm oil is refined within the country. The state-owned Holding Company for Food Industries (HCFI) owns shares in 36 subsidiaries engaged in flour milling, edible-oil production, sugar processing, food manufacturing, packaging, transport, storage, wholesale and retail distribution.

The state-owned Egyptian Holding Company for Silos and Storage (EHCSS) is responsible for storing the strategic food reserve. Egypt’s grain-storage capacity in modern silos has been expanded from around 1.6 mln to 4 mln t by 2022, while older facilities with an additional 1.5 mln t of capacity have been modernised. The National Silo Project encompasses 50 silos with approximately 1.5 mln t of storage capacity across 17 governorates, which makes the country able maintain strategic grain reserves sufficient for more than six months of supply.

Logistics of import and export flows

Egypt has direct access to both the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea and operates a diversified system of commercial seaports. As of 2026, the total number of commercial ports located on the Mediterranean and Red Sea stands at 19, of which 14 are established ports undergoing continued development and five are new ports being developed as part of the government’s maritime transport strategy.

The largest traditional Mediterranean gateway is Alexandria Port, whose Ministry of Transport profile gives a maximum capacity of 37.9 mln t per year and 10 mln t of containerized cargo, with nominal container capacity of 1 mln TEU annually. El Dekheila Port has a stated capacity of 27.1 mln t per year, including 10 mln t of containerized cargo. The two ports are being progressively integrated into the Greater Alexandria Port system.

Alexandria and El Dekheila form Egypt’s principal gateway for bulk agricultural imports, particularly wheat, maize, soybeans and other grains. Together they handled about 44.7 mln t of imports of all commodities in 2024: 23.8 mln t through Alexandria and 21 mln t through El Dekheila. Alexandria has dedicated areas for handling grain as well as fertilizers, El Dekheila is being developed specifically as a major clean dry-bulk and grain hub. The new El Dekheila dry-bulk terminal is designed principally for wheat, maize and soybeans and is planned to add 6–7 mln t of annual grain-handling and storage capacity. Damietta is the other major gateway for grain imports, especially wheat. The port has both public-sector grain silos and private storage facilities and receives large government wheat cargoes. For instance, it received 63,000 t of Ukrainian wheat in June 2025 and 57,515 t of Russian wheat in May 2026 for the public sector.

Sokhna and Adabiya are particularly important for fertilizer and chemical raw-material logistics as they serve the large fertilizer and chemical production cluster in the Suez Canal Economic Zone. Adabiya specialises in dry bulk (more than 6 mln t annually) and handles chemicals and liquid bulk. Sokhna has liquid-bulk infrastructure capable of handling products including ammonia, while major fertilizer producers and new fertilizer projects are located immediately around the port.

Cargo moving between Egypt’s ports and the country’s major production and consumption centres is transported predominantly by road. According to the World Bank, in 2023 trucks accounted for 96% of freight transport in Egypt, while rail carried around 1.9%. Rail freight capacity is concentrated around the Alexandria–Greater Cairo corridor, where only around three freight trains per direction per day could operate between Alexandria Port and the 6th of October Dry Port near Greater Cairo. The Cairo–Alexandria Trade Logistics Development Project is intended to remove this bottleneck, with capacity planned to increase to around 15 container trains per day by 2030.

Logistics costs remain an important constraint on Egypt’s domestic and international trade. In 2024 the average period between a vessel coming alongside and final cargo release at Alexandria, El Dekheila and Damietta was 8.73 days. By June 2025, the average customs-release time had fallen further to 5.8 days, with a target of reducing it to two working days. In March 2026 operating costs had risen, international shipping companies introduced substantial additional charges on routes involving Egypt and Gulf and Red Sea markets. French CMA CGM imposed an Emergency Conflict Surcharge of USD 2,000 per 20-foot dry container, USD 3,000 per 40-foot container and USD 4,000 for refrigerated containers and special equipment on shipments to and from Ain Sokhna. MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company) introduced an additional charge of USD 1,000 per container, while Hapag-Lloyd (Germany) applied surcharges of USD 1,500 for standard containers and up to USD 3,500 for refrigerated and special equipment.

The main sectoral policy document is the Updated Sustainable Agricultural Development Strategy 2030 (SADS-2030) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR), which is aligned with Egypt Vision 2030 and integrates agriculture with water management, land use, climate adaptation, agro-industry, input supply, food security and nutrition. The strategy is structured around six objectives: 1) enhancing food security and nutrition; 2) promoting sustainable agriculture; 3) reducing rural poverty and improving rural incomes; 4) adapting to and mitigating climate change; 5) increasing the competitiveness of agricultural products; and 6) creating employment, particularly for women and youth. Wheat production is targeted to increase to 12.2 mln t by 2030, corresponding to a self-sufficiency rate of 67%, while the share of agricultural land served by modernized irrigation methods is targeted to reach approximately 31.7%. The strategy also envisages improving field irrigation across 2.2 mln feddans and saving an additional 0.6 bln m³ of irrigation water.

Implementation of the agricultural strategy is organized through the Government Action Programme for three years (2024/25–2026/27). The Ministry has identified 12 main programmes and 47 sub-programmes, covering land reclamation and desert development, increasing productivity per unit of land, contract farming, agricultural extension, rationalization of agricultural water use, etc. Measures include the dissemination of high-yielding, early-maturing and climate-adapted varieties, provision of certified seed, fertilizers, pesticides and mechanization services, expansion of agricultural finance, modernization of extension services and increased private-sector participation.

The Ministry of Planning allocated approximately USD 2.8 bln to agriculture and irrigation in 2025-2026, including USD 344 mln in public investment and USD 2,5 bln in private investment. Priorities include the Toshka, North and Central Sinai and New Delta land-reclamation projects, raising crop yields per feddan by 10–15%, expanding modern field irrigation, extending contract farming to 1.8 mln feddans, increasing production of selected seeds, expanding greenhouses and protected agriculture, reducing agricultural losses and diversifying the origins of wheat and maize imports. The plan also targeted an increase in wheat-silo capacity to approximately 5.5 mln t.

Another nationwide project is the Productive Village initiative, initially launched in 2016 and reviewed in 2026 as a part of the presidential Decent Life (Haya Karima) program with the aim of encouraging industrial and economic activities in rural areas. The initiative is supported by FAO. As a part of the initiative, unused government buildings and vacant land in villages are planned to be restructured as small industrial facilities. The government primarily focuses on the textile and food-processing industries.

The government support framework for the agricultural sector also includes a range of other national programmes and strategic plans covering specific subsectors of agriculture, among others are:

The state plays a central role in agricultural production and food-security management through input subsidies, guaranteed procurement prices and direct procurement of strategic crops. Fertilizer is the principal subsidized agricultural input. Seven domestic producers manufacture around 6.6 mln t of fertilizer annually and receive natural gas at preferential prices. In turn, they are required to allocate 55% of production to MALR, which distributes it to eligible farmers at below-market prices. During the 2026 summer season, fertilizer distribution was controlled digitally: by 10 July, more than 8 mln subsidized fertilizer bags, equivalent to about 403,800 t, had been distributed, exclusively through the Al-Falah Card (Farmer Card) system, while available stocks stood at approximately 186,000 t.

Consumer food subsidies are another major crisis-management instrument. The approved 2026–2027 state budget contains around USD 3,4 bln for food subsidies, covering more than 60 mln people, while a further USD 884 mln was allocated to finance domestic wheat purchases.

Digitalisation is becoming an important component of farmer support in Egypt. The key government system is the Smart Farmer Card (Kart El-Fallah), which links individual farmers and registered holdings to a national digital database. In 2019, the system was rolled out in Gharbia and Port Said governorates and was extended to 9 additional governorates in 2020. As part of the project, agricultural holding records were linked to digital cadastral maps, covering approximately 4.9 mln feddans in 11 governorates by the end of 2020. In April 2026, the system covered approximately 4.3 mln registered holders and 8.4 mln feddans. The system is also used as a mechanism for controlling the allocation of subsidised inputs. By July 2026, more than 8 mln bags of subsidised fertilizer had been distributed through the system, while central and governorate-level operations rooms digitally monitored deliveries and allocations.

A broader programme of agricultural-service automation is being implemented through the Agri Misr platform. Agri Misr was created and developed by eAswaaq Misr, a subsidiary of the state-controlled e-Finance for Digital and Financial Investments Group. It was developed in cooperation with the MALR, Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, Agricultural Bank of Egypt and e-Finance Group. The platform was officially launched in July 2021. The platform connects farmers with input suppliers, buyers, financing, logistics and advisory services. The eAswaaq Misr’s newer Smart Farmer App incorporates remote sensing, farm and crop profiling, customised agronomic recommendations and links to agricultural-input marketplaces. The Smart Farmer App uses satellite and remote-sensing data to profile individual farms, soils and crops and combines these data with soil and water testing to generate crop-specific recommendations on fertilizers, pesticides and soil nutrients.

The government also operates the Central Administration of Plant Quarantine (CAPQ) Electronic Services Portal, through which exporters can register companies and request export inspections, while importers can submit import-permit applications and pay associated fees online. GeoAgro-MiSR is a digital agricultural extension platform developed by ICARDA under the CGIAR Excellence in Agronomy initiative, in partnership with Egyptian agricultural institutions. The platform is designed for smallholder farmers and combines weather information, remote-sensing data, crop and soil monitoring, irrigation scheduling, nutrient-management recommendations, pest-control advice and direct communication with agricultural experts. The system was developed using nationwide surveys covering approximately 3,000 farmers across Egypt’s governorates. By 2025, more than 1,500 farmers in Kafr El-Sheikh, Minya and Qena governorates had tested the application, while an improved version was being developed on the basis of feedback from farmers, extension workers and field enumerators. The programme is intended particularly to improve irrigation and input efficiency in smallholder farming.

Satellite imagery and remote sensing are used by the Egyptian government for crop monitoring and irrigation planning. In February 2025, the Ministry stated that remote sensing was being used to produce crop-composition maps and determine cultivated areas. It is a part of the governmental Irrigation System 2.0 plan, which combines satellite imagery with mathematical modelling, artificial intelligence and digital databases to improve water distribution. Satellite data is also applied to the management of irrigation infrastructure.

In March 2025, the Agricultural Research Center (ARC) reported that it was using remote-sensing techniques to measure the area actually cultivated with wheat. The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation has integrated satellite-based crop mapping into its water-allocation system. In September 2025, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Hani Sewilam and CEO of the Egyptian Space Agency Magid Ismail agreed to expand this cooperation, with particular emphasis on producing satellite-based maps of crop water consumption across cultivated areas. The Ministry plans to use these maps to determine irrigation requirements by crop and location and to improve the timing and volume of water allocations within the national irrigation system.

The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation also expanded the use of digital monitoring services provided by Digital Earth Africa, an initiative launched in 2019 and initially supported by the Australian Government. Since April 2026, Digital Earth Africa has been owned by the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. Egypt integrates satellite imagery with remote sensing, GIS and numerical modelling for water-resource planning and monitoring under the Irrigation System 2.0 plan. The platform is already used for shoreline monitoring, water-quality assessment, land-cover classification and irrigation-network management. It has also analysed changes along more than 2,000 km of Egypt’s coastline between 2000 and 2023 at 30-metre intervals to identify erosion hotspots, sediment accumulation zones and the effectiveness of coastal-protection structures.

Egypt maintains a thorough strategic food-reserve and storage system. The government’s National Project of Silos launched in 2015 is intended to increase national grain-storage capacity through the construction of 50 silos across 17 governorates. In 2024 the Ministry of Supply stated a target of expanding capacity from around 3.4 mln t to 6 mln t. Current steel-silo capacity increased from 1.2 mln t in 2014 to 3.3 mln t in 2023. In addition to grain silos, the government is developing seven strategic food warehouses in Sharqia, Suez, Fayoum, Luxor, Greater Cairo, Kafr El-Sheikh and Ismailia to store more than 25 types of basic commodities and improve regional distribution. Institutional coordination is centered on the MALR, the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade and the Future of Egypt Agency, which form a “food-security triangle” linking agricultural production, distribution and management of strategic stocks.