Egypt’s wheat, corn and rice imports to rise: USDA

Egypt’s imports of wheat, corn and rice will increase by 0.8%, 1% and 25% year-on-year in MY2019-20, according to the US Department of Agriculture. The report forecasts wheat imports to hit 12.6 mn metric tonnes (MMT), corn imports to increase to 9.5 MMT and rice imports to reach 500k MMT in the next marketing year, which runs from July 2019 to June 2020. It notes that local production of wheat and corn will also increase by 4% and 6% respectively due to an increase in cultivated land. Local rice production will similarly increase by 7%, however, due to restrictions on cultivation of water-intensive crops, the production increase will be primarily driven by planting higher-yielding rice varieties.