Egypt plans to start rationing subsidized bread, taking a risky step to curb the budget deficit by restricting supplies of cheap loaves vital to the poor. The government will start rationing “after two months,” Supply Minister Bassem Ouda said. Trials of a rationing system using electronic smart cards will begin in the restive Suez Canal
Egypt courts unrest by limiting subsidized bread
Saudi Arabia To Import More Wheat
Saudi Arabia plans to import around two million tonnes of wheat in 2011 like last year and will boost imports to three million tonnes after 2016 as it ends local production, a source at the grains authority said Feb. 2. The top OPEC oil exporter has emerged as a major wheat buyer to feed its
Gulf Arab Governments Tackle Higher Food Prices
Countries in North Africa and the Middle East are urgently seeking ways to soften the blow of surging food prices for their citizens, alarmed by protests against authoritarian rulers from Algeria to Yemen. Unprecedented demonstrations have erupted around the region, triggered by events last month in Tunisia where President Zine al- Abidine Ben Ali was
Foreign Farm Investors Must Avoid Resentment
Foreign investors must avoid provoking resentment as they buy and lease farmland from developing nations by using local manpower instead of industrialized agriculture, the head of a UN body said. Investors, mostly from the Gulf Arab region and South Korea, began buying and leasing farmland in developing countries in Africa and Asia to cut their
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
