Egypt’s wheat output reaches 11m tonnes, agriculture minister tells Senate

Egypt’s Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation Alaa Farouk presented his ministry’s food security strategy to a plenary session of the Senate, telling lawmakers that wheat output had risen to 11 million tonnes in 2026 and that the country’s farmland had expanded to 10.5 million feddans.

• Crops and prices
• Fertiliser subsidies
• Livestock and exports
• Legal overhaul

Farouk said the strategy rests on five pillars: expanding cultivated land, raising yields through improved seed varieties, developing livestock, poultry and fisheries, making farm exports more competitive, and modernising extension services through digital tools.

Crops and prices

The area planted with wheat rose to 3.7 million feddans in 2026, Farouk said, with average yields reaching 20 ardebs per feddan. The total cropped area, counting more than one harvest a year, reached 17.5 million feddans. The government raised its wheat procurement price to EGP 2,500 per ardeb this year to encourage planting.

Researchers have developed 77 new varieties of field crops and 51 of vegetables, he said. Sugar beet output reached 17mn tonnes and potatoes 10mn tonnes.

Fertiliser subsidies

Fertiliser subsidies exceeded EGP 35bn this year, Farouk said. Farmers pay about EGP 4,500 a tonne, a price unchanged for more than three years, against a global price of $450 to $500 a tonne.

The ministry is redirecting subsidies to strategic crops, limiting subsidised fertiliser for sugar beet to newly reclaimed land and gradually cutting the allocation for sugar cane. Surplus supply will be sold through Digital Smart Tree, a share of output will be sold at market prices and exports of the surplus will be allowed. The number of electronic farmer cards used to collect subsidised fertiliser has risen to 4.4mn.

Livestock and exports

Egypt is about 60% self-sufficient in red meat and 98% in poultry, the minister said, and fully self-sufficient in fresh milk and table eggs. Fish output reached 2.1mn tonnes in 2026.

Farm exports rose to 9.5 million tonnes in 2026, reaching 160 markets. Their value reached about $11.5bn in 2025, Farouk said, including $4.96bn of fresh produce and $6.8bn of processed goods. He said Egypt was the world’s largest exporter of citrus and frozen strawberries.

Legal overhaul

Farouk said the ministry was updating the 1966 Agriculture Law, which has not been substantially amended for decades, and revising the 1980 law on agricultural co-operatives to improve the services they offer farmers. Subsidised farm loans at 5% interest have reached about EGP 30bn, against commercial rates of 18% to 20%, and the ministry has requested approval to hire about 5,500 agricultural engineers for extension work.