Egypt Corn: The Use of One-Way and Three-Way Cross Hybrids
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FAS Cairo forecasts Egypt’s Corn production in MY 2023/24 (October – September) at 7.6 MMT, up from MY 2022/23 (October – September) estimate by 2.1 percent. The increase is attributed to a possible increase in planted area of 20,000 hectares. High Corn prices in the domestic market will encourage many farmers to plant more Corn during the summer of 2023.
On February 22, the Government announced a guaranteed price of 9,000 EGP (292.2 USD) per metric ton of white Corn and 9,500 EGP (308.4 USD) per metric ton of yellow Corn to encourage farmers to increase Corn areas. A guaranteed price for the crop is not the price of the final contract but rather the minimum purchasing price, which is subject to be raised if Corn prices increase in international markets, and it will not be reduced if prices decline. A contract farming framework will be implemented between farmers and stakeholders using the crop under the auspices of the contract farming sector of MALR.
Egypt’s Agricultural Research Center’s (ARC) strategy to increase feed Corn acreage and yields incorporates improved extension services, using higher-yielding one-way and three-way cross hybrids, encouraging growers to plant during ideal times, and enhancing marketing channels. Increasing the number of demonstration fields and showcasing new maize varieties of white Corn and yellow Corn is one of the significant priorities of ARC, as well as demonstrating good agricultural practices to obtain higher yields and decrease post-harvest losses.
FAS Cairo forecasts Egypt’s total Corn consumption in MY 2023/24 (October – September) at 13.9 MMT, up by almost 3.0 percent from the MY 2022/23 (October – September) estimate of 13.5 MMT. The increase in consumption is attributed to a 3.6 percent increase in feed and residual consumption from Post’s assessment in the previous marketing year.
MY 2022/23 Corn consumption was revised by 20.6 percent from MY 2021/22 estimate of 17 MMT. The post attributes the decrease to a significant reduction in MY 2022/23 feed and residual consumption. Feed consumption in the current marketing year has been impacted greatly due to substantial increases in raw feed material prices; therefore, poultry, large animal, and fish feed prices increased significantly.
During the past eight months, prices of Corn went up from 8,000 EGP/MT to 19,000 EGP/MT, while prices of poultry feed went up from 11,300 EGP/MT to 26,000 EGP/MT. The economic fallout from the war in Ukraine spiked international prices higher and generated a foreign currency crunch in Egypt, coupled with the Egyptian pound losing almost half of its value against the US dollar since March 2022. Such hurdles led to a significant slowdown in the release of Corn and soybeans from ports during the last quarter of CY 2022 and a backlog of Corn and soybean shipments for the poultry industry, which suffered the most.
Feed supply shortages impacted the poultry sector and have ramped up the cost of poultry production and the consumer price of poultry in the domestic market, thus placing a heavy burden on small- and medium-sized breeders in the past six months. As a result of these repercussions, 50 percent of poultry producers temporarily put their operations on hold.
Corn Import in Egypt
According to AgFlow data, Egypt imported 2.8 million tons of Corn in Jan-Jun 2023. In May-June, key suppliers were Ukraine (0.6 million tons), Argentina (0.25 million tons), Brazil (0.1 million tons), and Romania (0.1 million tons). FAS Cairo forecasts Egypt’s Corn imports in MY 2023/24 (October – September) at 6.5 MMT, up by 500,000 MT from Post’s estimate in the previous marketing year. Post estimates Corn imports at 6.0 MMT in MY 2022/23, sharply down from MY 2021/22 Corn import estimate by 38.5 percent.
Other sources: USDA
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