El Sharkawy wants tobacco cultivation study ready

Public Enterprise Minister Ashraf El Sharkawy is urging Eastern Tobacco to complete a study assessing tobacco cultivation in Egypt and to expand exports, Al Masry Al Youm reports. A comprehensive study on tobacco cultivation domestically was supposed to be completed by mid-May. This came amid reports that the farmers syndicate is refusing to grow tobacco in Egypt citing seemingly religious concerns such as the cash crop being “intoxicating to the cultivated land and to citizens.” El Sharkawy’s comments were made during his review of Chemical Industries Holding Company’s AGM, of which Eastern Tobacco is a subsidiary.