Sugar export tariff will not have significant impact

The EGP 3,000 per tonne sugar export tariff the government placed last Wednesday “won't change anything on the ground as no locally produced sugar is being exported at the moment,” one trader told Reuters. Sugar produced in Egypt by Savola is exported, the trader says, but it will be unaffected because its operation is based in a free zone. Ashraf El Gazayerli, Chairman of the Food Chamber at the Federation of Egyptian Industries, told Reuters’ Ihab Farouk the decision will not have a significant impact. The real problem, El Gazayerli says, is smuggling, not legal exports. There needs to be a domestic price that matches the international one, he says.