Egypt’s path towards managing domestic sugar prices

Egypt’s path towards managing domestic sugar prices

Sugar production has a long history in Egypt that dates back to ancient times. Egypt’s farmers cultivate both sugarcane and sugar beet on an area of 1 million feddans, which represents 6.5% of the total cultivation area in the country. The resulting refined sugar is used for domestic consumption and exports.

The Egyptian sugar market has recently faced a price shock that affected market dynamics. Hence, in this Factsheet, we will give you a comprehensive overview of the Egyptian sugar market’s main features, while highlighting Egypt’s global position, and will finally shed light on the current hike in prices.

- In 2022/23, the world’s production of raw sugar reached 177.28 million tons. India, Brazil, and Thailand ranked as the top three producers of sugar, with shares of 19.3%, 15.6%, and 8.3%, respectively. Egypt, on the other side, ranked the 12th largest producer, with a share of 1.6% of the world’s sugar production.

- In 2022/23, Egypt’s production of raw sugar reached 2.76 million tons, representing an annual decline of 3.3%. Sugar produced from sugar beets represented 53% of the total production, while 47% came from sugarcane. Egypt’s production of sugar is expected to slightly increase in 2023/24 by 1% year-on-year (YoY) to reach