With some 20 per cent of Egypt’s population of 78 million living under the poverty line of two dollars a day, and another 20 per cent hovering just above that line, it comes as no surprise that the majority of Egyptians survive on subsidised bread. Unsubsidised bread is 10-12 times more expensive than the subsidised five-piastre loaves (less that $0.01).
Since last summer the price of wheat has more than tripled on international markets. Coupled with sky-rocketing inflation on the local scene, this has had a detrimental effect on Egypt, placing it in the grip of a serious bread crisis. Four people were killed in fights that broke out in bread queues in recent weeks.
Whose fault?
Earlier this month President Hosni Mubarak mobilised the army bakeries, normally used to supply bread for troops, to deal with the country’s massive bread shortages. And in tandem with this order, a decision was taken by the government to separate bread production from bread distribution. This way the government hands bakeries quotas of subsidised flour and, instead of allowing them to sell the bread produced to the public, the ministry of social solidarity pays them for the corresponding quota of bread and takes it over to sell it to the public at specific distribution outlets. This way the government prevents the smuggling of subsidised flour which used to be rampant.
According to minister of social solidarity Ali Messelhi, the ministry sells subsidised bread directly to the public at various outlets, giving precedence to deprived and overcrowded areas. Dr Messelhi added that this method should put an end to the smuggling of subsidised flour which is later sold on the black market for huge profits. He added that the ministry intended to inflict harsh penalties against bakeries that smuggle flour, ranging from closing down the bakery for one year to revoking its licence.
Bakery owners resent the harsh allegations levelled at them. Farag Wahba who heads the baker’s guild at the chamber of commerce said that the problem was that bread is the main nutrition for people in Egypt but, due to its cheap [subsidised] price, is used as fodder for farm animals, fowl, and even fish. Wahba added that, however, subsidised flour is smuggled through the public sector and government mills not merely through private bakers.
Bread martyrs
Watani talked to people on the street to probe their opinion on the matter. The probe yielded a plethora of viewpoints which ranged from the serious to the outright bizarre.
Attiya Hammad, a baker, accused the government of being responsible for the crisis since it provides no substitute for bread; the prices of rice and macaroni are too high, he said.
On behalf of “Citizens Against Inflation”, Mahmoud al-Asqalani said that the NGO has officially demanded from Egypt’s mufti—the religious figure who issues fatwas—to consider those who lost their lives in the bread queues as martyrs, but the mufti has not responded so far. Political activist George Ishaq of Kifaya (Enough) political movement supported the contribution of the army but said: “We cannot solve all our problems through the military. Where is the civil State?”. He suggested the government finds some way to battle the global rise in prices.
Amr al-Shobaky of al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies said that the military intervention may help contain the problem but not its root cause.
Asfour Ahmed, a bakery owner totally agrees that military intervention will help solve the problem since the army owns bakeries and a great number of young men in military service with practically no work to do, in addition to a huge stock of flour. “They will not be accused of smuggling the flour as the bakery owners,” he said. As for Fady Farouq, a super market owner, he believes only money can solve the problem. “But where will the money come from? Farouq laments. From taxpayers pockets of course. As if inflation were the end of our problems.”
Joseph Erian, a pharmacist, questioned the economic reform the government claims while we’re facing one crisis after the other.