New Strategy Launched to Achieve Sugar Self-Sufficiency in Egypt

In order to increase sugar production in Egypt and achieve sugar self-sufficiency, the director of the Sugar Crop Research Institute at the Ministry of Agriculture revealed a plan to increase the yield of sugarcane crops using a seedling system. This will be done via a means of prioritising high-quality sugarcane seeds to speed up production economically and efficiently, whilst conserving irrigation water.

It has been reported that Egypt consumes 3.2 million tons of sugar yearly. 1.6 million tons are produced from beets, and only 900,000 tons are produced from sugarcane. This leaves a gap of nearly 700,000 tons to be imported to satisfy citizens’ needs.

According to the director of the Sugar Crop Research Institute, the production of sugarcane per acre ranges from 30 tons to 32 tons, while the production of sugar from a single acre is approximately 3.5 tons. Across a cultivated area of approximately 340,000 acres, this creates a yield of 1.19 million tons of sugar. The proposed seedling method will instead yield 57 tons of sugarcane per acre, significantly increasing the rate of sugar production.