Agricultural and Processing Policies' Role in Curbing the Sugar Gap in Egypt
Abstract: Egyptian Association of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 28, No. 3, 2018, P: 1301-1312
One of the main goals of Egypt's Sustainable Agricultural Development Strategy 2030 (SADS) is to boost sugar production up to 3.5 million tons. And since increasing area under sugar cane is not viable due to limited water resources, Egypt SADS 2030 aims to increase area under sugar beet to 950 thousand acres by 2030. Therefore, the current research investigates the problem of the growing increase in demand for sugar associated with the growing increase in population, which cannot be covered from sugarcane as a water consuming crop. Private sector started investing in establishing more factories for extracting sugar from sugar beet without taking into account linking production areas to processing factories, which resulted in several problems. Accordingly, the research aimed to study the potentials for increasing sugar beet production, in addition to predicting the gap in sugar by 2030 and to proposing the areas to be cultivated with sugar beet in different governorates in the light of production and processing capacities of beet sugar factories. Results revealed that sugar consumption and production are predicted to rise up to 4.298 and 3.435 million tons by 2030, pushing the gap up to 863 thousand tons. The research estimated the quantity of sugar beet required to cover this gap at 6.23 million tons, the production of which requires a total area of 290 thousand acres. Adding this area to the area already under sugar beet in 2015 (555 thousand acres), total area under sugar beet is to reach 845 thousand acres by 2030.
Exploring the production and operational capacities of factories, the geographic plan for the 1.5 million-acre project and estimations of soil salinity and climate conditions, the research proposed allocating 15% and 35% of the total cultivated area at the level of each region for sugar beet production. Delta ranked on top of the proposed region for expanding sugar beet production, where area under sugar beet is expected to increase from 298 to 423 thousand acres by 2030, of which 131 thousand acres in Kafr El-Sheikh, 95, 94, 60 and 21 thousand acres in Dakahlia, Nubaria, Behera and Alexandria. Results of studying the designed capacity of the currently operating factories in the Delta region revealed that their total capacity reached 365 thousand acres in 2017. Therefore, the research proposed allocating 125 thousand acres in the Delta, which requires either establishing other factories to accommodate the estimated increase in sugar beet production, or doubling one of the production lines in each of Nubaria and Nile factories. Canal region ranked second, where planted area is expected to reach 186 thousand acres, which requires establishing another factory, or adding another production line in Noran factory, the designed capacity of which is estimated to accommodate production realized from 70 thousand acres. Middle Egypt region ranked third in terms of proposed sugar beet expansion areas after establishing Ghorair factory in Menia, which operational capacity is estimated at 1.8 million tons of sugar beet, to be supplied with the crop from 100 thousand acres in Menia. Area under sugar beet in Beni Sweif, Fayoum, Assiut and Giza currently cover the quantities required for Fayoum, for Abo Qorqas factories in Menia, and for Gerga factory in Sohag (converted to extract sugar from sugar beet instead of sugar cane). The research suggested a set of recommendations including (1) establishing links between factories and sugar beet production regions to reduce transportation cost and avoid reduction in sweetness resulting from leaving the crop for a long time until providing transportation means to factories; (2) either establishing two additional beet sugar extraction factories in proposed expansion areas, or doubling the production lines in single-line factories; (3) activating contract farming, especially where procurement price conditions and incentives related to quality, early cultivation and abiding to delivery time are concerned.
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Publication year 2018
Pages 1301-1312
Availability location https://meae.journals.ekb.eg/article_112194_1427dffe2a6b2529f217d392de5b7183.pdf
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serial title المجلة المصرية للاقتصاد الزراعي
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Publication Type Journal
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