Food security policy
The National Food & Nutrition Policy (2007-2017) was developed to be a part of the National Development Policy, the National Health Policy and at the same time fits into the context of Food & Nutrition Security. In this Multidimensional form, joining together government policies concerned with realizing and achieving the universal human right to adequate food and nutrition in Egypt, it has the following overall goal:
To guarantee universal availability and accessibility to adequate high quality, safe food and promote healthy dietary practices for prevention and control of nutritional disorders. [1]
Other information on subsidies:
With households in the poorest decile allocating 51 percent of their expenditure on food against the national average of 40.6 percent, and food security remaining an issue of access driven by purchasing power, poorer households are highly vulnerable to food price changes. The important role food subsidies
continue to play in cushioning the poorest from food price volatility is evident when looking at a potential food price increase. Up until recently, Egypt’s food subsidies were mainly issued through two separate programs—the baladi bread program and the food ration program. The recent reform of the food subsidy system can be divided into five components—with the first two components referring to changes in the baladi bread program and the last three components referring to changes in the ration card program.
Exceperts on below from: Food Subsidy challenges in Reports from Facing the Challenge: The Recent Reform of the Egyptian Food Subsidy System; December 19, 2014 By: Olivier Ecker (Research Fellow), Jean Francois Trinh Tan (Research Analyst), and Perrihan Al-Riffai (Sr. Research Analyst) – IFPRI [2]
Moving the baladi bread subsidy to the end of the supply chain. In August 2014, the Ministry of Supply and Internal Commerce (MSIC) announced major modifications to the regulations on the baladi bread production, which are in line with common expert recommendations for reducing leakages along the supply chain. Bakery quotas for baladi flour were removed. Instead, bakeries have to purchase baladi flour at market prices and can buy any quantity of baladi flour. In turn, the government covers all production costs of baladi bread through direct cash deposits into the bakeries’ bank accounts on a daily basis.
Limiting baladi bread purchase to ration card holders and introducing maximum bread rations. Restricting the purchase of baladi bread to holders of valid ration cards marks a major change in the baladi bread program, ending the era of the universal bread subsidy introduced during World War II. Each household member registered on the household ration card is eligible for 150 loaves per month (5 loaves per day, on average), and beneficiary households can buy a maximum of 40 loaves per daily purchase. The unused baladi bread allotment can be redeemed for other commodities subsidized on the ration card program without any limit and within the first 10 days of the following month. This change marks a step toward merging the traditionally separate baladi bread program and ration card program and allows beneficiaries to choose the commodities more in accordance with their needs.
Transitioning from paper-based ration cards to electronic smart cards. In late September 2014, MSIC announced that, by the end of 2014, the transition from paper-based (booklet) ration cards to electronic smart cards will be completed, and existing paper-based ration cards will be invalid from January 2015 onward. The same smart cards will be used to purchase commodities subsidized under the ration card program and to buy baladi bread. The government increased the coverage of the ration card program (possibly to include households that rely on the subsidized baladi bread but were not yet covered by the ration card program). The total number of active ration cards are expected to reach 18.2 million by the end of 2014—an almost 8% increase over the number of cards in November 2011, when the ration card program covered 66.4 million beneficiaries (82% of the total population).
Increasing the number of subsidized items and allowing choice in the selection. In July 2014, the government expanded the basket of the commodities subsidized under the ration card program by adding 22 new commodities, and to a total of 32 commodities in early December 2014. New additions, include both food items (including meat, chicken, fish, pulses, and dairy products, but no vegetables or fruits) and non-food items (hygiene and cleaning products).
Replacing quantity-based quotas with cash allotment. Under the new ration card program, each beneficiary household receives a monthly cash allotment on the smart card, which can be redeemed for any of the subsidized commodities at any available packaging unit, instead of the quantity-based quotas for a few subsidized food items (cooking oil, sugar, rice, black tea) as under the old system. This provides beneficiaries some flexibility in the choice of subsidized purchases. The allotment amount per household depends on the number of registered household members, similar to the granted quotas before.
[1] http://www.nni.org.eg/
[2] http://www.arabspatial.org/blog/blog/2014/12/19/facing-the-challenge-the-recent-reform-of-the-egyptian-food-subsidy-system/
