Egypt will import 1 mn tonnes of Vietnamese rice over the coming three-four months under an agreement that President Abdel Fattah El Sisi signed with his counterpart Tran Dai Quang in Cairo last week, the head of the Federation of Egyptian Industries’ (FEI) rice division, Ragab Shehata, told Reuters’ Arabic service. The agreement comes into effect this week and should help keep Egypt’s reserve levels steady for at least one year, he added. The government had said in June that it was planning to begin rice imports after having clamped down on the cultivation of water-intensive crops, such as rice, through recently-passed amendments to the Agriculture Act. We had heard that Egypt was looking into importing unmilled rice from the US and was also eyeing Russia, Australia, India, Taiwan, and the Philippines as potential source markets.

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