Egypt is ramping up efforts to bolster food security through the Mostakbal Misr Agency for Sustainable Development — a new initiative and agency now helping to secure the country’s strategic reserves of staple crops and expand agricultural exports. The Egyptian Armed Forces-linked agency was founded in 2022 and initially appeared to only focus on the land reclamation project of the same name in the New Delta initiative but has since established itself as an important part of the country’s entire agricultural production and distribution ecosystem.

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It’s already made progress on its target of reclaiming 4.5 mn feddans by 2027, with the agency’s agricultural reclamation project having reclaimed 800k feddans by the end of 2023 and aiming for 1.6 mn feddans by the end of 2025, according to Mostakbal Misr Executive Director Bahaa El Ghannam. The authority’s reclamation projects are spread across the country, including in Minya, Beni Suef, Fayoum, Aswan, and the New Valley governorates.

The newly reclaimed areas are focusing on certain strategic crops — wheat, beets, corn, potatoes, and other vegetables — which have been identified as in need of increased production. The move is part of a broader push to improve food security and reduce imports.

Surplus is earmarked for export, which may have helped play a part in the 17% y-o-y increase in agricultural exports this season to USD 10.6 bn in 2024, according to Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly. The government is hoping that agricultural exports will play a role in flipping the country’s trade deficit by 2030.

The private sector isn’t absent from these efforts, with Mostakbal Misr inking partnerships with private companies to develop infrastructure, expand agricultural production, and operate agricultural manufacturing zones.

Mostakbal Misr is also increasing the country’s strategic reserves of commodities, inking a cooperation protocol early this year with the Supply Ministry’s Holding Company for Food Industries to set up an industrial complex for cooking oils. This agreement and others come amid Mostakbal Misr’s plan to build strategic reserves of commodities to hedge against market instability.

Strategic reserves need to be stored somewhere and Mostakbal Misr is in control of that too, developing around 100 grain silos in the New Delta with a total storage capacity of 500k tons, according to a statement. The project is part of a broader effort to construct 300 silos with a total storage capacity of 2 mn tons in partnership with China’s machinery manufacturer Famsun to address Egypt’s food security.

The silos will be part of the Mostakbal Misr’s 1k-feddan industrial zone, which will also house factories for animal feed, dried produce, frozen foods, and other food manufacturing ventures, targeting an annual output of 1.5 mn tons. The zone will include refrigerated storage and processing facilities to meet local demand and support exports. A 550-feddan logistics hub will handle over 20 mn tons of agricultural trade annually.

Mostakbal Misr is also preparing to turn its attention southwards, with a 320k feddan project planned for Aswan and El Owainat to take advantage of a large underwater reservoir. Up north, the El Hammam Canal project is set to cultivate 402k feddans. The canal is fed by an agricultural wastewater treatment plant, which has been labelled as the largest of its kind in the world.

The agency is not only involved in the growing and storing of crops but also the importing of strategic commodities, replacing the General Authority for Supply Commodities — often known by its acronym Gasc — as the nation’s sole strategic commodities importer. Under its new role, the agency has since been securing imports of wheat, after a bumpy start that saw traders object to the new controlling body not publishing data on big wheat tenders. A government source told EnterpriseAM that Mostakbal Misr had secured wheat contracts at good prices to build up strategic reserves ahead of a forecast rise in prices.

Taking over Gasc is no small or easy feat, with Egypt being the world’s largest wheat importer. The country imported 12.5 mn tons of wheat in the 2024-2025 season — more than the EU imported.

The agency will soon also be tasked with taking over the Egyptian Mercantile Exchange, our government source told us. Work is underway to reorganize the exchange, and Mostakbal Misr has been tapped to manage it with the aim of creating a more competitive market and bolstering food security.

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