Prime Minister Sherif Ismail exempted raw sugar imports from tariffs, to be applied retroactively from 1 January until 31 December, Al Mal reports. Ismail had reinstated the levy on imported sugar in January, but reduced the tariffs from 20% to 14%. According to an unnamed source, the government is looking to import 1.2 mn tonnes of raw sugar throughout this year. Supply Minister Ali El Moselhy had reduced the price of sugar earlier this week to EGP 10.5 per kg for regular consumers, and set the price of sugar sold to traders at EGP 9,250 per tonne. The decision was welcomed by Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI), with chairman of the FEI’s sugar division Raafat Razika telling the newspaper that importing greater quantities of raw sugar is beneficial to local factories, which will be responsible for the refining process.

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