Wholesale prices for potatoes have decreased sharply over the past week in Egypt, driving Egyptian farmers to abandon their own crops due to lockdown polices from importing countries harming the Egyptian product, saturating the local market and causing low demand.
Al-Masry Al-Youm reports in Egypt Independent that farmers in Upper Egypt’s Minya governorate have dumped large amounts of their crop after prices collapsed from prices from LE10 (US$0.64) per kilogram to 70 piasters (US$ 0.045) per kilogram, forcing them to clear land to grow other crops to compensate their loss.
Experts claimed that the crop is subject to a dumping policy and warned that farmers would be reluctant to grow potatoes next season, calling for urgent intervention by the government to protect food security.
The Vice President of the Chamber of Vegetables and Fruits at the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce Hatem al-Naguib urged the government to intervene. He called for rational policies to help achieve balance between supply and demand to protect potato producers or other agricultural products and ensure agricultural sustainability.
Source: Egypt Independent. Full report here
