The Suez Canal expansion project continued to make the rounds for a second day on the airwaves last night, while new reports of a projected dip in food prices got the nation’s talking heads’ attention.

The Suez Canal expansion project is slated to wrap up by 2034and the Suez Canal Authority is currently collaborating with the largest global consulting companies, said SCA Chairman Osama Rabie, who took to the airwaves to advocate for the project and dispel doubts about it. Rabie appeared as a guest on El Hekaya (watch, runtime: 38:28), Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 21:53), and Fi El Masa’a Ma’ Kaswaa (watch, runtime: 7:35).

“The tree that bears fruit will be stoned,” Rabie said in response to criticism of the project, stressing that the New Suez Canal faced the same flak when it was first launched. The inauguration of the new channel doubled the canal’s FX receipts to USD 10.25 bn from USD 4.8 bn until last year as the number of ships transiting the waterway doubled, he said.

Rabie shot down claims that the 2015 New Suez Canal project triggered an FX crisis, arguing that the project recouped its costs of EGP 22 bn in four to five months.

Prices of food commodities are expected to fall 20-25% within six weeks as the EGP strengthens against the USD on the back of the FX injection the country has received from the Ras El Hekma sale, Ahmed Moussa quoted Supply Minister Ali El Moselhy as saying on Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 2:29). The country has a large stock of basic commodities, the minister noted, explaining that Egypt’s strategic sugar reserves are sufficient to cover six and a half months of consumption, while frozen meat stocks should last three months (watch, runtime: 3:59).

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